From Dragon Hunter to Huntsman Professor
by Allard-Liao
Summary: After destroying a number of world-threatening monsters and would-be overlords, the Dovahkiin thought he could settle down and have a life. Now, however, at the age of 53, Sheogorath has a new task for him: Save the colorful world of Remnant. Rated T for now; may hop up to M later, but probably not. EDIT: It did.
1. Chapter 1

A black disc limed with a ring of violet smoke appeared in the middle of a clearing amidst a vast green forest. Out of it tumbled a man with a tiger's tail and wearing heavy plate armor, a massive metal shield on his back, and a golden-hilted sword on his hip. He tumbled across the forest floor until he crashed against a tree. Rubbing his sore ribs, he shouted at the portal. "Why in Oblivion did you do that, Sheogorath?! I was building a good life in Skyrim!"

A Scottish-accented voice echoed from the portal in reply. "Hey, this world is in the middle of a major crisis! Creativity, itself, is at stake! If the bad guys win, everything will be dull! Dull! Dull! Dull! What I need you to do is – oh, wait. Looks like they won, already. Oops. Seems I brought you here about eighty years too late. Oh well. I'm sure you can find something to do. Ta-ta."

"Wait!" The portal winked shut. "Gods damn you, Lucian!" He groaned and pulled himself up to a kneeling position. "Akatosh, I need guidance. Please give me a sign of what I must do."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a line of shafts of sunlight brighten unnaturally.

"Thank you."

He stood up, took a step…and promptly stumbled into a tree, as though his feet were not large enough to support him.

"What–?" He looked down at his legs and gasped, his eyes widening at what he saw.

He was used to seeing legs like those of a great cat. What he saw now were the legs of a man. He removed one of his gauntlets to find his arm devoid of fur, but he still possessed his claws. To confirm his suspicions, he took off his helmet and felt his face and crown. His face was that of a Man or Mer, but his tiger-like ears remained intact. The final confirmation of his form was that the familiar weight of his tail still hung from above his butt.

"Why in Oblivion did Sheogorath change my body into that of an Ohmes-Raht?" he mused under his breath.

Knowing that he wouldn't get an answer by just standing around, he took a moment to adjust to walking on his now-long-and-narrow feet before setting off on the path of light.

After a few minutes, some things in the surrounding bushes growled at him. The man grasped the hilt of his sword and held his shield firmly, ready to retaliate against any attack. His trained and experienced mind barely registered the werewolf-like creature lunging at him before his sword's black blade flew from its sheath and rent the beasts head from its shoulders.

As the monster's corpse collapsed at his feet, nearly half a dozen more stepped out of hiding in a loose circle around him.

He dove through the gap in their line created by the dead one, looked back, and grinned as he saw that they had clustered.

Reaching deep into his soul, he unleashed the most devastating weapon in his arsenal. "RII VAAZ ZOL!" His Thu'um tore across the clearing in a soul-destroying wave…that might as well have been a gentle breeze for all that the monsters reacted to it. _Okay, either they have an utterly absurd level of resistance to magical effects, or…_ He channeled an Incinerate spell into his sword and flung it at his foes, incinerating (Heh) one of the creatures.

The cat man choked back his revulsion at the soulless abominations before him to focus on fighting.

Claws flew at his face. His shield batted them aside, and his sword slid into the fiend's flesh, the weapon's fiery magic burning its target to ash.

The last two monstrosities tried attacking him at a furious pace, trying to wear him down, refusing him respite. Then his shield began to glow. The monsters had enough intelligence to back up and glance at each other in confusion and worry.

This actually caused the man to cackle a little. He charged forward and swung the glowing shield into his prey.

One was able to jump out of the way, but the other took a direct hit with a burst of energy, the release of which flinging it into and through a tree. Its broken corpse came to rest fifty feet away.

Neither of the remaining combatants wasted time in wonderment over the death, with the last wolf rearing up, roaring, and raising a paw to strike down this intruder that had slaughtered the rest of its pack.

Before the man could respond, there was a sound like a thunderclap, and the beast's head exploded. When the creature's carcass fell to the ground, the tailed man saw another man, this one with unkempt gray hair, glasses, wearing overly well-made clothing colored various shades of green, and holding a cane in one hand and a cup filled with a steaming substance in the other.

The tiger pointed his sword at the new arrival. "Who are you?"

"My name is Professor Ozpin. I am the Headmaster of the Beacon Huntsman Academy." He took a sip from his drink. "And I am aware of how little that means to you."

The blade returned to its sheath. "That you are in a position of local authority and a teacher of some form and skill, but not much beyond that."

A raised, silvery eyebrow. "That was a little more than I expected you to understand. However, I am also your one opportunity to safely and quickly leave this forest, Mr.…?"

"Lejule. Is that so?"

Ozpin gestured toward the corpses of the monsters, which were beginning to dissipate. "The creatures of Grimm are numerous beyond any conceivable method of counting, and they infest the untamed regions of the world. Without help, you would last a few days, slaying many Grimm, before being overwhelmed and killed. I am offering you that help."

"And what do you want in return?"

"Merely to speak with you when we're in a safe place."

"You want more than that." He saw three shafts of sunlight behind Ozpin coalesce into a shape reminiscent of an arrow. He sighed. "However, it seems that I have little choice but to follow you for now. Lead the way."

"It might be better if we walk side by side." Ozpin took another sip. "For both our safeties."

Lejule chuckled. "Good to see that you aren't a completely trusting fool. Let's go."

* * *

About half an hour later, the pair was sitting in Ozpin's office, and he had asked for Glynda to join them. While they waited, Ozpin noted that the stranger's eyes flicked around the room occasionally, as though seeing most of the objects for the first time.

Even so, he had moved his chair to the side of Ozpin's desk, ensuring that neither the Headmaster nor the office door were out of sight for more than a second or so at a time.

 _Very smart and well-trained. Or very experienced. Either one is good._ When Glynda arrived, Ozpin cleared his throat. "Now that we're all here, we can talk properly. It may be better to alternate between our questions and yours, as I am sure you have many."

"Just two: Can you get me home or, failing that, what can I do while I'm here?"

Glynda and Ozpin looked at each other. Oz was the first to look back. "Well, I'm sure you'll have more questions by the time we're finished. To answer your first question, unfortunately, we have neither the technology nor any other method to send someone to another world."

Lejule's arms, which he had folded when he'd asked his questions, fell, one to the desk and the other to his side. "How–?"

"Your reaction to most everything around you." He sipped his coffee. "Also Akatosh."

Glynda looked at Ozpin, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "What is 'Akatosh?'"

It was Lejule who answered. "'Who,' actually. Akatosh, or Alkosh or Auriel depending on who is worshipping Him, is the God of the Sun and Time and is the chief of the Nine Divines of my world. So, I have to ask…" He leaned towards the Headmaster. "How do you know of Him?"

Ozpin took another swig. "Even gods can worry about their wayward children."

"So, He told you who I am."

A shake of the older man's head. "No. He told me _what_ you are, dragonborn, but not _who_ , nor did He say what you are capable of."

Glynda looked askance at Ozpin, who nodded and allowed her to take control of the conversation. "On that subject, and to answer your second question, what you can do here depends on what you are capable of. So, to start, do you have any combat training?"

"My father trained me in the proper use of heavy armor, while my mother taught me how to fight with blade, shield, and magic, and my uncle-a-few-times-removed instructed me in the workings of most other weapon types on Nirn. Field experience has taught me all other methods of melee and ranged combat. Through the College of Winterhold, a school for mages, I honed my talents in magic. My…friend, Aela, gave me the knowledge to be a better bowman. Finally, under the tutelage of Paarthurnax and the other Greybeards, I mastered every known Thu'um."

Goodwitch stopped typing into her tablet and looked up at Lejule. "Thoom?"

The cat shook his head. "Thu'um, pronounced as two nearly-indistinguishable syllables. It is a powerful, word-based form of magic that takes years or even decades of meditation and study to learn."

"I see." Despite her even tone, Ozpin could plainly see that she was skeptical even as she recorded that information. "And what of your non-combat talents?"

"I am a healer and a master enchanter, alchemist, and blacksmith." He paused, taking a steadying breath and visibly holding back tears. "My wife and children say that I'm a decent cook, as well."

Ozpin examined Glynda's notes. "Interesting. Tell me, have you ever instructed someone in the art of combat?"

Lejule nodded. "My children."

"Would you be willing to teach others?"

"Do not dance around your request. Say it plainly."

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "Very well. I would like to hire you as a combat instructor here at my school, teaching the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses, this world's premier defenders." He finished off his coffee. "You will, of course, be paid well and receive free room and board. In addition, you'll have full use of our infirmary if you are ever injured and our forge to keep your weapons and armor in good repair."

"Do I have any other choice?"

"In truth, none that would not be either illegal or a massive waste of your talents."

Lejule hung his head and sighed. "Fine. What will I have to do?"

"There are a few things we'll have to work on to prepare you for your new life here, however brief it may be. For now, I'd suggest getting some rest. You've had a long day."

Ozpin's concern was dismissed with a wave of Lejule's hand. "There are times I have pushed myself far harder for much longer. What can we do right now?"

Glynda reopened the note-taking program on her tablet. "Well, we can record basic information such as height, weight, age, et cetera."

"And name."

Lejule tilted his head. "I already told you my name."

Ozpin nodded. "Yes, you did, but it may need to change while you're here."

"Why is that?"

Glynda spoke up. "Does your name have a reference to color?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"A little over eighty years ago, all of Remnant, this world, was ruled by a single…empire, I guess you would say. The rulers were oppressive and intolerant and tried to quash all forms of freedom and expression. As a show of defiance, parents began naming their children after terms reminiscent of color, a tradition that has continued to this day."

Lejule remembered Sheogorath's words and nodded, finally understanding them.

Ozpin tapped his cane to punctuate the witch's words. "Therefore, having a name that bears no relation to color may attract unwelcome attention. So, is there any color-based name you would like to use?"

The cat looked away, his eyes shifting and head tilting as he thought on the subject. Then he closed his eyes and cringed at what had to be a painful memory.

"I apologize. If this is too emotionally painful for you, we can–"

"Jasiir."

Glynda looked at him. "Pardon?"

"The name I would like to use is Jasiir Daytha. It means 'twilight claws' in my birth language."

Ozpin nodded, stood, and held out his hand. "Very well. Let me be the first to welcome you to Beacon, Professor Jasiir Daytha."


	2. Chapter 2

Lejule's – now Jasiir's – head spun as he walked down one of Vale's streets. Not just from the revelation of being on another world and being recruited to train its warriors, but he had to learn enough to play at being a fifty-three-year-old native of Remnant…in two weeks. This was the Morndas – no, Monday – of the second week.

Thankfully, in some ways, he had an astounding history teacher in Doctor (as the man insisted) Bartholomew Oobleck. The disheveled green-haired man had regaled the khajiit, who would now go about as a tiger Faunus, about the entire known history of the world for twelve continuous hours per day for the past five days straight. It was those history lessons that made Jasiir thankful for the fact that his long travels in Skyrim had transformed his bladder into an iron tank.

On that subject, that was one of the aspects of Remnan life that he had difficulty adjusting to: indoor plumbing. Even in the Imperial City after thousands of years of civilization, the bucket was the only place to take care of removing waste. Sitting on a bowl, aiming one's excretions inside, and then pushing a lever, and a stream of water would send the waste to a building dedicated to disposing of it? Unthinkable, yet obvious once he saw it.

The other lessons he had were minor, by comparison. Mainly, he had to learn the cultures and mannerisms he needed to pass as a former citizen of the kingdom of Atlas, the northernmost society on Remnant and the closest equivalent to Skyrim, and adjust his life story to match.

On the first day, Glynda had unlocked what she and Ozpin called his "Aura." Lejule thought back to that moment.

* * *

The cat man awoke from his slumber, grateful for the comfortable bed. A flashing light drew his attention to his nightstand, where the device Ozpin had given him (a "scroll" he recalled) was pulsing. Specifically, the symbol that looked like a capitol M with two parallel lines connecting the uprights was flashing. Hesitantly, after remembering the quick instructions the grey-haired professor had taught him, he reached out a finger and pushed it against the symbol. Instantly, the scroll changed, and he recoiled in confusion, worried that he had ruined something.

After a moment, he worked up the courage to look again. In place of the meaningless graphics was a picture of Ozpin next to the words: "Come to my office at 9." Gingerly pressing the sides together to "close" the scroll, Jasiir stood, walked into the so-called "bathroom," and, after some trial and error to figure out how the devices worked, washed himself.

Once that was done, he dressed himself, donned his armor, put the scroll into a pouch, and walked to the Headmaster's office. When he arrived, the first thing he noticed was a sour-looking Glynda glaring at him, which made him wonder what he had missed before he arrived.

Ozpin was sitting in his chair, his cane leaning against his desk and a cup of coffee (as Jasiir had learned the hot drink was called) resting in front of him. He gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Please. Have a seat." When the cat sat down, he continued. "Now that you are rested, we have something very important that needs to be done right away."

"What is it?"

"Where you are from, your abilities in combat may be sufficient to see you through any battle. Here, we have an ability that divides those who can withstand battle and those who crumble at the first blow: Aura."

Glynda took over. "Aura is a manifestation of the soul. Every truly living being has one. It can act as a shield, deflecting and stopping harm, and can be channeled through weapons and tools to strengthen them. While everyone has an Aura, only those whose Auras are unlocked can excel as warriors."

"A shield that stops harm? There are many spells that do the same thing."

Ozpin leaned forward. "That there may be, but magic takes time to perform. Time you may not have in the midst of combat. Aura is instinctual, automatic. In addition, it also increases your speed and strength to levels far beyond the capacity of physical training. Experienced huntsmen can move almost faster than the eye can see as a matter of course."

"When your Aura is unlocked, you may also gain a unique ability we call 'Semblance.'"

"'Semblance?'"

"A Semblance is a unique power or ability that comes with an unlocked Aura and can do incredible things. It stems more from one's personality than any familial lineage, with very few exceptions." Ozpin sipped some of his coffee. "I will speak of two of our students as examples: Ruby Rose and her sister, Yang Xiao Long. Ruby is excitable, quick-witted, and a quick learner; her Semblance allows her to exceed the top speed of many huntsmen twice her age. Yang is hot-blooded and likes to fight; every time she takes a blow in combat, her Semblance channels that impact into more power for her own blows."

Glynda crossed her arms. "You do not have an unlocked Aura, and I'm not even sure that yours could be unlocked."

"How does an Aura become unlocked?"

Oz took another sip. "It requires someone with an unlocked Aura to intertwine it with your own until yours can carry itself. The process can be considered rather…intimate. For that reason, most Auras are unlocked by family members. However, that will not be possible in your case, so Glinda has agreed, albeit reluctantly, to unlock your Aura."

Her scowl deepened. "Be prepared for disappointment. Never has someone's Aura been unlocked this late in life. Most have it done in their teenage or pre-teen years. Not at fifty three."

"Glynda."

She sighed, uncrossed her arms, and walked over to Jasiir. Beckoning him to stand up, she put her hand on his cheek and said, "Close your eyes and concentrate."

As he did, he replied, "I should warn you that my soul is very unusual."

Goodwitch began reciting some prayer or oath, but it was drowned out in the khajiit's mind by the internal symphony as their two souls interacted.

* * *

Hers, glowing a brilliant white with a violet outline, entered the domain of his, the great golden dragon. She faltered for a moment but recovered quickly and strode forward.

His draconic head lowered to regard the visitor, tilting quizzically.

She held out a hand, palm up. An invitation.

He gently placed a wing talon in her palm.

She led the dragon into, of all things, a dance. While she twirled gracefully on the formless ground, he took to the skies and mirrored her movements. She leapt into the air, and he dove to catch her on his neck.

He spiraled into the heavens, wings partially folded for more elegant posturing. When the momentum bled off, he tipped over toward the ground, neck positioned to ensure that she did not fall off, and sped downward. The ground was now liquid like ocean water and his wings' powerful flap to stop their descent sent a spray into the air to rain down over them. Never before in his timeless life did he feel so alive. His glow brightened until it nearly outshone hers. He landed, the two shared a wordless conversation, and she left.

* * *

When Jasiir's senses returned, he saw Glynda half sitting on, half leaning against the desk for support. "Miss Goodwitch?"

She waved him off. "I will be fine. The energy around you now is your own. It will protect you from now on." She paused, looking at the floor. "And I have never felt anything like it."

Jasiir looked down at himself to see his body surrounded by golden light fashioned like a set of scales. Claws tipped his hands and feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a thicker tail slowly wavering behind him. He reached into a pouch and pulled out a plate of silver polished to a mirror shine and gazed at his reflection. The face of a dragon, horns included, gazed back. From his back jutted a pair of wings. Putting the makeshift mirror away, the dragonborn turned to the Headmaster. "I…have not the words."

"Nor I. It is rare for an Aura to manifest more than a simple glow. Yours is unique. In what way is something only time will tell."

* * *

After that day, his lessons in his remaining waking hours were to learn how to further harness and channel his Aura. Already, he was beginning to match his teachers.

As he came out of the memory, he saw that he'd arrived at his destination. At Ozpin's and Oobleck's suggestions, he was going to buy a number of books called "encyclopedias" to further his education about the world on his own time. They'd given him the address to this particular store.

"'Tukson's Book Trade.' Well, it seems like a nice enough shop." He opened the door and walked inside. He guessed the store was about the same size as the Winking Skeever tavern in Solitude or Southern Books in Leyawiin. Book shelves lined every available space on the walls except where they would cover the windows, and there were a few free-standing shelves jutting from the floor on either side of a path that led from the front door to the shop-keep's desk. It was impressive, but Jasiir had seen better; the Arcaneum at the College of Winterhold came to mind.

The shopkeeper wasn't at his post, so Jasiir rapped his knuckles on the wood of the desk. From a back room came a call of "Be right there." After a second, a man wearing a tan shirt and green pants with bushy black sideburns stepped into view. "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."

"'Home to every book under the sun?' That is a rather grand claim."

The man nodded. "Yeah, I know. Still, it makes a great catchphrase."

"I will agree with that."

"So, how can I help you?"

Jasiir leaned forward. "Do you have any encyclopedias?"

The shopkeeper nodded and pointed to his right. "Center section, bottom shelf. Although, I seem to be sold out of the 'F' and 'W' volumes, unfortunately."

The cat nodded. "Thank you. Hopefully I won't need those two."

"By the way, not bothering to hide the ears?"

"Why should I?"

"Many people around here don't really like faunus like you and me."

"You're a faunus? You do not have any animal features that I can see."

"I got lucky. Just these." He held out a hand and his fingernails extended into very lethal-looking claws.

"Impressive." Jasiir backed up and brought his tail into view. "However, hiding the ears wouldn't be enough. Rather difficult to hide a tail." He walked over to the shelf, picked up the twenty four available volumes of the encyclopedia, and carried them to the desk. "How much for all?"

The other faunus' eyes widened at the massive purchase. "You sure you can afford this? This is at least four hundred Lien."

"I can afford to spend a few thousand, if I needed to."

"Oh. I see. Not many faunus become wealthy. Even fewer to that extent. I'll ring these up, then." He picked up a device that shined a red light at a group of black lines on the back cover of each book and beeped after a second or so. When he had finished with the last volume, he announced, "Alright, you total comes to four hundred eighty seven Lien and fifty three cents."

Jasiir fished around in his pocket and pulled out a few Lien cards that, if his memory served from the currency primer he had been taught, equated to five hundred Lien and handed them to the shopkeeper. "You may keep the change."

"Wow. Thank you. Not many people would say that. I…" He trailed off and looked out the window.

Jasiir followed his gaze. On the sidewalk across the road was a blonde monkey faunus whose white shirt was unbuttoned walking next to a black-haired girl who was wearing a white sleeveless shirt, a black corset over it, and a black ribbon in her hair in a fair approximation of animal ears. "Friend of yours?"

"Yeah. One of my best customers, too. Don't know that boy she's with, though. I don't usually say this to strangers, but I feel I can trust you. May I ask a favor?"

"Sure."

"Could you keep an eye on her? Make sure she doesn't get into trouble."

"I can. If she sees me and asks?"

"My name's Tukson."

Jasiir held out his hand, and Tukson shook it. "Farewell, Tukson." He grabbed the bags that held his purchases and walked out of the store.

* * *

 _Tukson was right to worry_ , Jasiir thought as he watched the masked men walk out of their flying machine. In the same field of view, he could see Tukson's friend and the monkey faunus also watching the men from a nearby, slightly lower warehouse rooftop, and she looked as though she was despairing at the sight.

* * *

When he had reached the perfect distance to tail the pair, he'd heard the boy finishing up some convoluted line. "…go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there. Right?"

She shook her head. "The only thing is, I have no idea where that would be."

The monkey cupped his chin in thought. "Well, when I was on the ship, I overheard some guys mention offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

"How huge?"

He spread his arms. "Huuuge. Big Schnee Company freighter."

"You're sure?"

* * *

Jasiir was jolted from his thoughts, as was the girl, when a new voice rang out from the masked men's transport. "Hey! What's the holdup? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves here, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

Tukson's friend stood straight, determination filling her posture, drew her sword, and leapt down to the ground.

Jasiir mimicked the motion, casting a Slow-Fall spell on himself to prevent breaking his legs on hitting the ground. _Thank you, Ge'Vaudan_. He crept through the maze of large crates, keeping out of sight until he saw the transport, again. Next to it, the girl had her sword pressed to the throat of a man wearing a long white coat and a semi-spherical black hat and holding a white shepherd's-crook-styled cane. When the masked men pointed various weapons at her, she used her free hand to remove her ribbon with a flourish, revealing…a set of cat ears. _Hidden in plain sight. Not bad._

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?" Her voice was clear and loud, despite the slight tremble of feeling betrayed.

The "White Fang" members simply looked confused. The man in white scoffed. "Hah, h-okay. Didn't you get the memo?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together." The smugness in his voice was greater than that in any Thalmor's voice, causing Jasiir to grate his teeth together to prevent himself from giving himself away.

She pressed her sword tighter against his neck. "Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation."

A whirring roar passed overhead, and a sudden wind forced both of them to turn their faces away. The man recovered first. "I wouldn't exactly call it a **little** operation."

Two more of those flying machines hovered above them. The sight distracted the girl, and the man took advantage of it, an explosion from the base of his cane throwing her off her feet.

That was when Jasiir decided that enough was enough. Drawing his daedric crossbow, he loaded an explosive bolt and fired into the largest group of White Fang. Stowing the bow and drawing his ebony longsword, the Claw of Akatosh, and Auriel's Shield, he conjured a full set of bound armor before charging into the fight.

Three of the Fang swung their swords at him; he blocked two with the shield and parried the third with his own blade, knocking the foe's clumsy swing aside and stabbing at his exposed stomach. Instead of piercing through flesh and bone, the black metal hit a wall of energy and threw the man into the air. _Huh. So that's how Aura works. Fascinating._ He twirled around, his shield pushing the other two off balance before a great cleaving swing flung them both away.

A bizarre whistling sound caught his attention and brought his shield to bear just in time for an explosive launched from the white-coated man's cane to burst harmlessly against the divine artifact. The impact still pushed him back a couple of feet.

He glared at the man and straightened his posture, opening his stance. "You wish to trade fireballs with me? You will lose."

After weathering three more blasts, he responded with a Fireball of his own. The man was able to duck out of the way of the slower projectile, which exploded against one of the containers.

That was when the girl reentered the fray. "He's mine!" She nearly danced around the man, sometimes leaving what looked like a shade to distract him while she struck from a different angle. Or rather, she tried to strike from a different angle, but he was agile enough to keep up with her.

Then a third party joined the battle against the White Fang, the monkey boy, who wielded not more than a colorful staff. When the girl was knocked away, the blonde brought his weapon to bear against the man who continued to block every blow. Then the boy's weapon split into four parts with chains connecting each pair of parts, adding unpredictability to his swings. And then the weapon revealed that each part was one of those thunderclap weapons – guns, Jasiir remembered – and still the man was able to keep from being hit.

Jasiir would have helped, but he was keeping the rest of the White Fang busy. One particularly big member with a rapid-firing gun was forcing the khajiit to keep his shield up and pointed in only one direction, lest he get hit; his bound armor had faded away, leaving him in his casual clothes. The shield and his Aura were all he had for defense, and he wasn't sure that his Aura would be able to withstand this. Then the hits on the shield had accumulated enough for its power to be unleashed. The gunfire slowed at the same time, so the cat charged, trusting in his week-old Aura. He twisted under the woman's line of attack, causing the projectiles of the her weapon to fly harmlessly above him, and slammed his shield into her chest, sending her flying, as planned, into one of the machines. The impact wrenched open one of its wings and the transport fell to the ground.

A tinny girl's voice resounded over the area. "Hey!"

The man in the coat called back. "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Jasiir turned just in time to see the man launch another projectile, which hit a girl wearing a red cape on the roof of another warehouse. The cat launched himself forward with fully reckless abandon, with no lesser intention than to carve this man into bloody chunks. An explosive projectile to the chest stopped Jasiir cold and another threw him backwards. This allowed him to see something extraordinary.

Another girl wearing a tan dress was telekinetically manipulating about a dozen swords in a windmill pattern, scattering White Fang soldiers left and right. A new trio of those flying machines swooped in and opened fire with their own guns, but she maneuvered her swords to block the shots. Another pair of swords flew from an opening on her back and embedded in the wall of the warehouse behind her, and a pair of strings attached to them tightened and yanked her to safety. The swords she was using changed their flight pattern into a circle while their tips pointed at the machines. Energy built up between them until she punched it with both hands, sending destructive streams out to carve up the transports.

"Whoa." Jasiir wasn't quite sure if it was the monkey that said it…or he, himself.

At that moment, he saw the man in the coat close the door on the last transport as it lifted into the air. Dropping his shield and sword, he channeled magicka into his hands to prepare one of his most devastating spells. Weaving his hands in the requisite arcane pattern, he formed the magicka into electricity. When the charge was strong enough, he brought his hands back and thrust them forward, projecting a lightning bolt at his target. However, before the bolt could do more than carve a ragged wound in the flying machine's armor, the craft fled beyond the effective range of the spell, which he then let fade with a sigh.

"Who are you?"

He turned around and saw the black-haired girl pointing her sword at him. "A friend of a friend." Just to mess with her, he activated one of the gifts Nocturnal had given him, crouched, and vanished from sight. As he snuck away, he realized that it seemed the automaton girl could still see him and was tracking his movements. _What exactly is she?_ However, he knew that dwelling on that would do him no good, so he just quietly slipped away from the area and returned to Beacon.

* * *

 **Author's Note: And now we find out where in the RWBY timeline this story is set. To be honest, I had planned for this chapter to be set during the episode "The Stray," but, as I was writing, it pushed itself back to "Black and White."**

 **I don't normally do this, but, between FF's glitching review system and the fact that one of the reviews was left by a guest, I'll be replying to reviews after the chapter at least until the glitches are resolved.**

 **Guest: The prime reason I didn't make the Dovahkiin a Nord is because Nord!Dragonborns in RWBY crossovers are OVERDONE. Truly, out of all the RWBY/Elder Scrolls crossovers I have read that feature the Dragonborn, with a single exception, all of them have had a Dovahkiin who is either A) One of the RWBY cast (usually Jaune), or B) A Nord (Although I will admit that a dragon-faunus-Nord sounds AWESOME!). Also, he may be 53, but he's only been in Skyrim for ten years (He hails from 4E 211.).**

 **EDIT: Realized that one mod I would use (I can't use any, as I play on an Xbox 360.) but forgot to put the trace of in this chapter. Also, I have been chronically mispelling Glynda's name. I've corrected those mistakes.**


	3. Chapter 3

Jasiir flipped the page to the next entry of the encyclopedia, which he had nearly finished reading. And it was a good thing he was so close to the end of his studies, as classes would begin the next day. Seeing that his vision was starting to blur from the wealth of information, the Faunus sat back and rubbed his eyes. It was an extremely complex process to integrate into a society and play at being a member of it for one's entire life, even more so for a society that operated with a completely alien history and culture.

Idly, he looked out the window…just in time to see a dark-and-gold figure get launched through the roof of the cafeteria. Fearing what would happen, he stood and rushed out of his office, racking his mind for what spells to use in this scenario as he went. The cat arrived more than a minute later, seeing that the figure was mere seconds from slamming back into the roof. _Please let this work_. With as much aiming as he could manage, he launched a Slow-Fall spell at the, he could now see, female student. Nocturnal must have been smiling at him, because the spell connected, and her descent slowed.

Surprise very evident in her posture, she alighted on the roof rather than crashing through it. "This is cool, but what exactly is it?" She took an experimental hop into the air, descending over the course of twice the time of the jump up.

Seeing that she was alright, Jasiir walked into the building just as Ozpin turned to walk out, Glinda at his side facing a number of students, including that friend of Tukson's. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."

"Pardon?"

"Childhood, Mr. Daytha."

The Faunus nodded in understanding, noting that the students were cleaning food off of their uniforms, and followed the headmaster out.

"So, how prepared are you for your coming classes?"

"I believe I can pass as a backwoods Atlas native to anyone who isn't from Atlas. Those who **are** from Atlas would pick me apart like an orange."

The older man hummed to himself. "Well, I guess it will have to do."

"I know, I know. I need to be ready to teach, tomorrow."

"Is the classroom you were provided adequate for the lessons you will use?"

Jasiir nodded. "For now, at least."

* * *

The cat watched his students file into the room in groups of four, team by team, his tail flicking in annoyance at how few of them seemed to care about the class. "Listen up, whelps!" He leaked the thu'um into the words for a little more authoritative power. When the kids were all silent, he continued his practiced speech. "I am Professor Jasiir Daytha. Welcome to Melee Combat. I am taking over for Professor Ferro, who decided to retire over the break. I was briefed on how he taught this course, and have decided to throw his methods out the window. If anyone has a disagreement about how I will instruct you, the door is there." To his moderate surprise, no one walked out of the room. "Very well. I expect some of you to take up that offer by the end of this class period.

"My own methods will be thus: I will spar with each and every one of you, one at a time. After each spar, I will point out where you need to improve. Minimize your weaknesses; emphasize your strengths. That is what I will teach you. If you just want to learn how to hunt Grimm, Professor Port's class and stories about them are just down the hall." A few students chuckled. "However, if you want to learn how to truly fight, and fight well, against any opponent you may come across, you are in the right room.

"One more point: Semblances and guns will not be allowed in these matches. You are here purely to improve your skill in close combat with your chosen weapon, as there will be situations where either a gun or a Semblance will be impractical or flat-out impossible to use. If I detect the use of a Semblance or here the report of a gunshot, the match will immediately end, and you will be sent back to your seat while I send a report to the headmaster about how you cannot follow instructions."

From the back row, he heard an orange-haired, large-bodied boy scoff. "Figures that a Faunus would want to handicap us to make sure we lose to him."

Running through his memory of the class roster, Jasiir identified the offender. "Mr. Winchester, would you like to help me demonstrate to the class why Semblances will not be allowed in this class? A full spar as you would find in Miss Goodwitch's lessons with no move disallowed. Or do you think that fighting a Faunus is beneath you?"

The boy stood and growled. The right button had been pushed. As he stepped down the stairs to get his armor and weapons, the rest of Team CRDL cheered him on. "Yeah, go get him, Cardin."

"Show that faunus who's truly on top."

A sharp flick of the tail was the only outward side of Jasiir's irritation. "Mr. Winchester, bring the rest of your team, to make it fair." His tone was a hair shy of a growl.

The team's bravado diminished at that, but they still complied and went to their lockers. Jasiir walked to his weapons' chest and withdrew the Claw of Akatosh, trading away the lesser training blade he had been intending to use.

A few minutes later, he stood in the center of the sparring area between his desk and the rows of seats, surrounded by the entirety of Team CRDL. His eyes were shut and his sword sheathed, his stance relaxed.

The students were very different. All four had their weapons out and pointed at him. Their postures were stiff and their extremities were subtly shaking, tell-tale signs that they were terrified. None dared to make the first move.

Finally, Cardin charged forward, his boots clanging against the wooden floor and the rest of his armor clattering against itself. He brought his mace around in a wide, powerful arc.

Faster than anyone could register, the Faunus' gauntlet darted out, the punch sending the larger student crashing onto his back. With that attack halted, Jasiir went back to his relaxed stance.

As though a tap had been broken off, the entire team converged to attack. Jasiir was still amazed at how well his Aura enhanced his reflexes. He blocked Sky Lark's halberd with his forearm and brought his shield colliding into the side of the boy's head.

The redirected poleaxe impaled Russell Thrush, his Aura the only thing preventing him from being disemboweled.

The momentum of Jasiir's shield carried it through into an uppercut, the impact snapping Dove Bronzewing's head back like an inverse pendulum.

He followed through in time to block a literally explosive blow from Cardin's mace, which had been preceded by a growling roar from the young man. His foot lashed out, knocking the larger fighter's legs out from under him. He flipped over his foe and lifted Cardin up so that his face caught Russell's flying, spinning double kick.

It was at this point that the cat finally drew his blade, channeling a wave of fire through its enchantment to scatter the birds. He put his foot on Cardin's back and brought his weight forward and straightened his leg, slamming his opponent into the floor. From there, he leapt at the other three.

Dove pointed his sword at the Professor and fired a gun built into the hilt, the bullets striking the shield with all the might of snowflakes. He and Russell attacked in tandem, their blows crashing against the shield while doing their best to avoid being hit in return.

When the shield started glowing, however, they backed off to try to figure out what was happening. In that second's lull, Jasiir rushed forward, his heel hurtling into Russell's chin and sending the boy flying into the ceiling, hard. The Mohawk-haired teenager fell back to the floor, unconscious.

The shield made an almighty gonging sound as it struck Dove's chest, launching him into the wall in a spray of concrete and plaster, where he blacked out on impact.

With an almost insulting casualness, the cat walked over to the last member of CRDL. Smirking, he flipped his sword around and swung the pommel in a hammer-blow to the side of the young man's head. When Sky stumbled but did not go down, Jasiir's boot met the other side of his head, dropping the boy like a sack of potatoes.

Hearing a now-familiar growl behind him, the Faunus flicked the sword back so that he grasped the hilt, blocked the mace attack with his shield, and brought his blade around in an underhand sweep.

The black metal bit into the gilded steel…and kept going. Cardin's breastplate parted like water before the enchanted weapon, and an ugly, seared wound followed in its wake, splitting the larger man's chest from abdomen to shoulder.

Jasiir's breath stopped. His shield and sword fell from his hands. After a second of shock, he pushed himself back into action, casting the strongest Speed Fortification spell he knew on himself and picking up the boy. He knew that, despite his best efforts, his voice sounded strained as he announced, "Class dismissed." Without waiting for a reply, he sped off to the infirmary, channeling what little remained of his magicka reserves into healing energy that spooled around the squirming, screaming form in his arms.

* * *

Jasiir sat in the chair just outside the infirmary, praying to all Nine Divines that he had not just killed a student on his first day. When he caught the scent of black coffee, he stood and looked to the headmaster's feet. "It was my fault, Professor. I never noticed that his Aura had been depleted." His gaze lowered to his own feet. "I am ready to accept whatever punishment you deem necessary."

He brought his head back up when he felt Ozpin's hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Daytha, we all make mistakes. What matters is that we learn from them." Ozpin stepped up to the door and looked through the window. Various privacy screens obscured Cardin from view, but the point was there. "And Mr. Winchester can be brash, hard-headed, unwilling to surrender if he sees the slightest chance of victory. That last one, and his particular care to constantly push his team-mates to be better at what they can do, for good or ill, are the reasons I appointed him the leader of his team." He took a sip from his coffee. "From what I have heard, his racist tendencies against the faunus were what caused you to initiate that duel."

"Yes, sir. I let my emotions get the better of me."

"You wouldn't be the first. However, what happened is as much Cardin's fault as yours, due to him attacking when his Aura was depleted."

Jasiir's tail flicked and his hands curled into fists. "You would dare shrug off the fact that I nearly killed a student, today?!"

"Not at all. Instead, I will note that you are the only reason he still lives. Had you not been there with your healing magic, he would have bled out and died well before any medical attention could be delivered. His injury might have happened with any teacher in similar circumstances, but you were able to keep him from perishing. For that, you have my thanks."

The cat unclenched his fists. "I…hadn't thought of it like that. Than–"

"As for punishment, I will be withholding your pay for the next month and having your personal weapon kept under my lock and key for the duration."

He blinked. "I guess that is fair." As Ozpin walked away, he looked into his satchel. Inside were the scorched and blood-stained pieces of Cardin's cuirass. After a moment of thought, he closed the bag and set a course for Beacon's forge. He had work to do involving strips of leather and some ebony and gold ingots he had in his possession.

* * *

Near sundown, Jasiir left the forge and walked across the campus to the first-years' dormitory building, which just so happened to house his office; he wondered what reason Ozpin had for doing that. Instead of heading there, he walked up the stairs to the roof exit. It had taken him some time to get comfortable with the fact that there was no parapet lining the roof, but it did allow a unique opportunity. He sat down on the ledge, set his pack down beside him, and gazed at the sky as the stars began to appear.

Alongside Remnant's single, shattered moon. Being a khajiit, that had been the absolute hardest facet of this world to get used to; his race, culture, and even physiology had all revolved around Nirn's twin moons and their cycles. A single moon whose face turned and changed over its cycles, one that had somehow fragmented before written and oral history, was inconceivable to the cat, and yet there was the proof hanging in the sky.

Thinking of Nirn led to thinking of his family back in Skyrim. _They're safe. Ge'Vaudan will make sure of that. But they must be tearing all of Skyrim, if not all of Tamriel, apart searching for me._ He shuddered at the composed he showed himself to be, inside he was a shattered crystal held together purely by the hope that he would return to his wife and children. Tears welling in his eyes, he looked back toward the moon. _Azura, Akatosh, please tell my family what happened to me. Tell them that I'm safe and trying my hardest to find a way home._

His meditation was interrupted when he heard the door to the rooftop open. He looked over his shoulder and saw two students: Pyrrha Nikos, one of the best combat students in Beacon, and Jaune Arc, one of the worst. The red-headed girl stopped short when she noticed the Professor. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are we interrupting?"

Jasiir stood. "Not at all, Miss Nikos. I merely like to watch the stars." He studied the pair more closely. "Why are you out here dressed for combat?"

"Practice," Pyrrha replied, immediately. "We can go somewhere else, if you–"

"No, please. Continue. I would like to watch."

Jaune cleared his throat. "Are-are you sure?"

"Of course. I will be evaluating the two of you, eventually, so it may be to your benefit for me to watch you spar."

"O-okay." He drew his sword, and Pyrrha drew hers. With gentle probing strikes, the two began their "duel," Jasiir observing with folded arms.

Mere seconds later, he grimaced. "Stop. I have seen enough." He stepped up to the blonde student. "This is the first time you have had combat teachers, at least formally. Correct?"

"I…" Jaune sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Yeah."

The Faunus placed a hand on the student's shoulder. "Let me let you in on a little secret: I never attended an academy."

"What?"

"All of my training has either been from my parents or from the battlefield." Jasiir looked toward Pyrrha, who seemed impressed with his story. "Sometimes, a single teacher can make a greater difference in your life than an entire school." There was no missing her blush and smile.

Unless you were Jaune, apparently. "How do you mean?"

Incredulous, but hiding it behind a devious smile, Jasiir leaned in close. "My archery teacher became my wife."


	4. Chapter 4

Cardin Winchester awoke slowly and muzzily. The sterile white screens and blanket told him that he was in Beacon's infirmary. The bandages that divided his chest in half reminded him of the reason he was there. _When I find that Faunus, I'm going to-no. I'll go to the headmaster. Get that rotten professor kicked out of here._

He gently pulled himself backwards into a half-sitting position. "Cardin! You're all right!"

The leader of Team CRDL would recognize Russell's voice, anywhere. He looked and saw that his entire team was sitting or standing next to his hospital bed. "Hey, guys." Then he noticed that their gaze was flickering back and forth between him and something on the other side. Carefully, so as not to disturb the wound, he turned over and followed his teammates' gaze.

Sitting in the chair on the other side of the bed was the Faunus professor who had carved open Cardin's torso like a holiday ham, his head bowed in sleep and a satchel by his side.

Anger boiled in the young man's gut. "What are **you** doing here?" The throbbing pain in his chest robbed his words of some of their venom, but he hoped it was still recognizable.

In an almost mockingly slow manner, the cat raised his head. "I came to apologize. I should have kept track of your Aura level and not attacked when you were depleted."

"What? You think I'll accept an apology from you?"

The cat shook his head. "Not one of words, no." He reached into the satchel.

"What–?" His breath caught in his throat.

What the Faunus had pulled out of his bag was a recreation of his breastplate with an additional plate of armor attached to protect his abdomen. Unlike Cardin's armor, however, the ornamental bird was fashioned from gold instead of brass and the actual armor was some black metal instead of steel; the boy realized that it was the same metal the professor's sword was made of. The gilding was masterfully applied, with the golden cardinal possessing more detail than before. Overall, the armor was a thing of beauty, although Cardin would never admit it.

"What happened to MY armor?"

The cat sighed. "I'm afraid my blade destroyed it beyond repair. I am sorry."

"My father made me that armor."

The Faunus reached into his satchel, again. "I can return the pieces, if you like." He pulled out the two halves of Cardin's old breastplate, a melted scar separating the pieces.

Cardin shuddered as the damaged armor made him realize just how close he had come to dying. "Uh…thanks. Just…put them on the nightstand."

When the severed plate rested on the table, the professor continued. "I can also offer some advice for you and your team, based on what I saw in our fight."

Begrudgingly, Cardin acceded to the cat's point. "Uh, shoot?"

Jasiir stood and placed his hands behind his back, in full professor mode. "You give your opponents too much warning: you move in such a way that your armor is noisy; you waste a lot of time building up heavy, foe-crushing blows even when they aren't necessary; these blows are often prefaced by a growl. Add those together, and any human and many Grimm opponents would have enough time to get out of the way of your swing before it arrives.

"My advice: learn how to move quicker and more quietly, using kicks and punches to keep your opponent off-balance long enough to get in a faster, less-powerful blow using a grip closer to the head of your mace. Focus on those for now, and I can give you further pointers when next we spar."

Team CRDL's leader simply nodded.

Russell actually raised his hand. "And me, sir?"

The professor chuffed in…was that embarrassment? "I am afraid I wasn't able to see enough from you, Dove, or Sky to make a proper opinion of where you can improve, individually. However, as a group, I can say that you all need to keep better track of where your teammates are and coordinate your attacks better. With just a couple of maneuvers, I was able to cause a few of you to strike each other." There were murmurs of embarrassment and apology among the team. "That aside, I believe that you can become a good team, if not a great one, if you pay better attention and keep your arrogance and racism in check."

* * *

As he walked back to his classroom, an imperious yet still mildly deferential voice sounded behind him. "Professor?"

He turned and saw a short girl with ice-white hair and a matching skirt. After a second to remember her name, he answered. "Yes, Miss Schnee?"

"How did you do that with your sword?"

The lie was instantly on his tongue. "Burn Dust."

Unfortunately, he remembered too late, that lie was absolutely worthless against the girl in front of him, one of the few in the school who could be considered an expert on Dust. "I don't think so. Burn Dust does not act the way your weapon did. So, how did you do it?"

Another lie. "My Semblance. It allows me to manipulate elemental energies normally found in Dust."

"And your healing ability?"

"Aura manipulation." She crossed her arms, tilted her head, and tapped her foot skeptically. "That's all you'll get."

She looked ready to object, but shut her mouth. "Hmph. Well, I can't force you to say what you don't want to. See you in class."

Jasiir's brow creased as he watched her leave, confused at her backing down just as quickly as she had advanced.

* * *

Jasiir heaved Coco to her feet, the young woman nursing bruised ribs. "Head back to your seat. I'd suggest investing in a secondary weapon that fills in the gap between your weapon's two forms."

"I'll think about it," Miss Adel groaned.

"Now, then. I believe we have time for one or two more duels today. Let's see…" He looked over the assembled students. Finally, he settled on a large blonde girl. "Yang Xiao Long, prepare for battle."

When she was ready, Yang put a hand on her hip. "I have to warn you, my Semblance is automatic. It just happens."

He dropped into a pre-pounce posture, hands spread wide and claws out. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

Absently, the professor noted that the rest of her team was cheering for the blonde brawler. "Go Yang!"

"Fight well!"

"Yeah! Represent Team RWBY!"

For her part, the girl simply smiled and adopted a fighting stance, fists raised. The two circled each other, closing the distance until they reached striking range.

To Jasiir's great disappointment, her first move was to draw her right fist back far, readying a slow but powerful punch. When she threw the punch, he easily rotated out of the way, grabbed her fist as it passed over his shoulder, and used the momentum to effortlessly throw her several feet away. All of that was in a single movement. "Striking hard is good. Striking fast is better."

Yang chuckled as she got back to her feet. "I'll keep that in mind." She raised her fists again.

The two continued to brawl for several minutes, with a clear contrast of styles. Where the blond favored straight-forward, heavy blows, the professor preferred gentle swipes that tore at her Aura without activating her Semblance. His agility meant that she rarely hit him, and her growing anger and frustration caused her punches to fly faster and harder, but less accurately.

Finally, after pushing Yang back a few steps, Jasiir launched a kick at her chin, slipping in underneath her guard and connecting heavily. The impact sent her flying nearly a dozen feet into the air and then crashing head-first into the floor, stunning her and dropping her Aura below the fifteen-percent elimination threshold.

The room was silent; it was well-known that Yang was the best hand-to-hand combatant of the entire first-year class, and Professor Daytha had completely trounced her.

When she stirred, he helped her to her feet. "Rage can be a useful tool if you can channel it and not let it affect your control. Also, work on your defense. There were a number of blows I landed that I wasn't supposed to."

She grimaced. "Those were meant to feed my Semblance. Guess they didn't hit hard enough."

Jasiir nodded. "That was exactly my strategy. If you fight someone who employs the same strategy, and they want to kill you, they will. Head back to your seat."

Yang nodded. "Got it, sir."

As she walked back to the ring of seats where her team waited, the cat folded his hands at the small of his back. "We have time for one more spar before the end of class–"

A silver-haired boy wearing a uniform that wasn't Beacon's raised his hand. "May I?"

The khajiit scoured his memory for this student and came up blank. "Who are you?"

"Name's Mercury."

"Why have I not seen you before?" Something was off about this boy. Despite his laid-back posture, Jasiir could see that his eyes missed nothing.

"I'm from Haven, here for the tournament."

"And why are you here in my classroom?"

"Killin' time."

A green-haired, red-eyed girl sitting next to him put her palm to her face. "What my partner means to say is that our team left Haven a bit too early and didn't finish our studies. Since we have some time before the tournament, we figured we'd catch up on our lessons. Or, at least, take the Beacon equivalents."

While plausible, that explanation didn't quite convince the professor. Still, if it was true, it would be good to see how the other Kingdoms taught their students. "Fine. In case no one told you, in this room, we are focusing purely on the use of our melee weapons and unarmed combat. No firearms or Semblances are allowed. Head to wherever you are storing your weapons and other gear and prepare for battle."

When Mercury returned, he was wearing a silver outfit with black accents. A gun barrel with a rotating magazine was attached to each ankle and heel; the boy said that he had unloaded both of them. Taking that into account, it seemed that he fought with a mainly kick-focused style.

They both dropped into their stances, Mercury's very reminiscent of Yang's, and cautiously approached each other, looking for openings. The Haven student's opening move was a straight split-kick very similar to the one Jasiir used to finish off Yang.

Jasiir crossed his arms to block and countered with a kick of his own, his heel striking Mercury's chest and knocking him to the floor.

To his credit, the boy simply swung his legs and bounced back to his feet, his agility in the maneuver impressing the cat. He then unleashed a flurry of small, knee-down kicks, using his hip to aim them high or low.

Daytha countered them with forearm blocks. Distantly, the professor noted that the blows clanked when they encountered his gauntlets.

Mercury switched legs, bringing his left around in a swing that would have taken the head off of anyone who didn't have an Aura.

This time, the leg was met with a devastating punch, the ringing of armor echoing throughout the room. If the student felt it, however, he gave no indication.

A leg sweep meant to knock the cat off his feet was dodged by back-flipping into a hand-stand that transitioned into both of Jasiir's legs piston-kicking into Mercury's chest, blowing away a quarter of the boy's Aura in one blow and sending him flying across the dueling area.

Mercury caught himself and landed on his feet, sparks flying as the barrels of his guns scraped and slid across the floor. He charged forward, a leg stretched out in a kick.

Jasiir reached out to catch and redirect the foot, only to receive a blow to the chest that he had no clue was coming. "Stop."

Everyone gasped. None of them had seen any reason for the match to end early.

"Who has the illusion Semblance?"

There was confused chatter amongst the students, but it all amounted to "I don't know."

"It was either you or your teammate, Mercury. I know the Semblances of everyone else in here." Silence. "Very well. Neither of you will be welcome in my class, ever again. Get out. As for the rest of you, class is dismissed."

* * *

As the two doors slid open, loud music much unlike anything in Skyrim assaulted Jasiir's ears. Something about roses and various colors. Diverting his attention from the sound, the cat took in the sights of this place. Colored lights assaulted his senses just as intensely as the music had, flashing from red to white to black and back again. Sighing, he wondered why he had agreed to this.

After class had ended, to show that there were no hard feelings, he had asked Yang where the best place to, using a new term he had learned, "hang out and unwind" was, and she had directed him to this "night club."

Crowds of people were dancing on giant white tiles on the floor while a ball made of hundreds of little mirrors spun overhead.

Off to one side was a raised alcove within which a man wearing a headdress that looked vaguely like a child's toy bear was dancing differently from the main crowd and spinning black discs on some sort of console.

On the other side was the familiar sight of a bar with dozens of bottles of alcohol lining the wall behind the counter.

Smiling at the one thing that would not have been too out of place back home, Jasiir walked over to the counter and sat on one of the stools.

A few seconds later, the proprietor, a man known as "Junior," walked over. The cat had to suppress a grin, as the nickname "Junior" could only be referring to the age of this man in relation to his parents, for Junior was nearly a foot taller than Jasiir's own six-foot height. "What do you want?"

"Got anything like mead?"

"'Mead?'"

 _Damn_. "A type of honey-based alcohol from my home territory. Not too surprised that it doesn't show up here."

"Well, we've got some whiskey with honey, if that would work for you."

"Never had 'whiskey' before. How does it compare to brandy?"

"A fair sight stronger. It'll put hair on your chest, as the saying goes."

Jasiir pondered for a moment. "Fair enough. I'll try it."

Junior nodded and shouted to one of the men wearing black hats and suits and red sunglasses. "Get out a bottle of the honey whiskey." The subordinate climbed a ladder and examined one of the lines of bottles. "Two rows down. The Patillo's, you idiot."

That got the Faunus's attention. "You don't respect your employees?"

"The boy's got their asses handed to them by a girl a couple months back. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

"What girl? And for what reason did she fight them?" The employee set the bottle on the counter and Jasiir used his claws to pop off the cork after laying down a Lien card beside it.

"Never got her name. She was looking for someone and, when I told her I didn't know anything about that person, took out her frustration on us."

"If you describe her, I may be able to see that justice is served." He took a swig of the alcohol. From the strength of the burn, he determined that it was about the same strength as the popular Nordic mead. Not quite as strong as the Honningbrew mead he preferred, but it would do.

Before Junior could reply, two of his employees ran in through the door and hurriedly pressed it shut. "What are you two idiots doing?"

The pair frantically, and unintelligibly, shouted over each other in their attempt to reply, and then the door exploded behind them, throwing them to the floor. Through the hole strutted..."Yang?"

Her words pierced through the din quite easily. "Guess who's back?" She put a sing-song nature into her voice on the last word. She also spread her arms as if she were expecting a hug.

Instead, more than twenty of Junior's men rapidly approached and pointed their guns at her, and the bear-masked man stopped the music, which had begun to jerk through the notes like a boat on the rapids of a river.

A blue-haired young man poked his head out from behind Yang and the men tensed as she looked to be getting angry. Fortunately, Junior walked up to the group. "Stop, stop! Nobody…shoot."

Jasiir took that moment to quickly and quietly get out of sight. He used Nocturnal's gift to turn invisible and walked over to an unoccupied booth in a corner of the club, from which he watched the conversation between Yang and Junior, the former having dragged the latter back to the bar.

Yang was asking about a man named Roman Torchwick, who was apparently responsible for the White Fang's presence at the docks just before the semester started.

Junior poured himself a glass of alcohol, slammed it back, and dropped his hand to the counter while holding his head with his other hand. "I don't know."

The blonde leaned forward. "How can you not know?"

"I haven't talked to him. I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here. He paid up front, I lent him my men." He stood tall and leaned forward, himself. "And none of them came ever back."

The blue-haired boy slammed his fist on the counter in an attempt to be dramatic. "So where did they go?"

Junior looked at him for a second. "What kind of stupid question is that? None of them came back. Who is this guy?"

Yang grabbed Junior's collar. "Don't worry about him. Worry about me if I don't find out what I want."

"I already told you everything. Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them." He raised his voice to a near-shout. "Which is something I can relate to!"

Yang stared in challenge at Junior, who stared back in sincerity, enough to convince her, apparently. "Come on, Neptune."

"We get everything we need?"

"Well, we got everything we can. Hopefully the rest of the team's having better luck."

The pair lapsed into silence as they walked outside, and Jasiir followed them out. As they got onto a yellow two-wheeled vehicle – a motorcycle, the cat's brain supplied –, Yang's scroll beeped.

She opened it and her teammate, Blake's voice issued from it. "Everyone, if you can hear me, we need backu–"

A new voice Jasiir remembered as that of the monkey boy Blake had been with at the docks intruded. "HEEEEEELLLLLP! They've got a robot, and it's big, really big. That Torchwick guy's in it, but not like, it didn't eat him, he's controlling it or something."

Distant thumping reached the khajiit's ears.

Yang put on her helmet. "Where are you guys?"

Blake and the monkey ran past, the aforementioned "robot" in hot pursuit. It looked to be about the size of a Master-ranked Dwemer Centurion.

The boy with blue hair, Neptune evidently, leaned toward Yang from his seat on the back of the cycle. "I think that was them."

Annoyance tingeing her voice, the blonde replied, "Yeah, I got it." She started the motorcycle, spun it around and sped away, nearly throwing off her passenger.

Jasiir stood and let his invisibility fall away. "Hmm. I will never catch up to them on foot." He concentrated a particular conjuration spell into both hands and brought one of the Soul Cairn's victims to the real world. Bones appeared and assembled themselves into the familiar form of the skeletal horse, Arvak. It nickered and nuzzled his chest. "I missed you, too, old boy. Now, something I have to do for you first, and then we can ride." He channeled an on-touch variant of the speed fortification spell into the horse and hopped onto its back. "Hyah!"

* * *

The road was a mess, the robot's feet having gouged deep troughs into the pavement. While that made it easy to follow the battle, it also provided numerous hazards to both skeletal horse and khajiit rider, as one false step could send either or both tumbling against the false rock. Fortunately, "false steps" were not something Arvak partook in, and they both arrived at a road crowded with vehicles. Many of the vehicles were overturned or damaged by impacts, which Jasiir assumed stemmed from the criminal Torchwick's attempt to escape from or kill Team RWBY and their friends.

While the cat was worried about his students, he had a greater obligation to help the innocent bystanders who had been caught in the middle of the action. He pulled out his scroll and called the appropriate emergency service numbers. After being assured that help was on the way, he set to work tending to the injured and healing what he could.


	5. Chapter 5

It was the morning after the incident on the road. Jasiir had been called to Ozpin's office to be questioned on what he knew of the incident, Team RWBY having already supplied their testimony. Understandably, the four girls knew far more than the professor did, the interrogation quickly concluded, and the cat was dismissed to prepare for class.

Now, he was using his scroll to read the news. That was another of the segments of Remnant life that he'd needed time to get used to: all of the news was reported on visual screens instead of paper; there wasn't anyone running around town handing out printed copies of the previous day's news. Obviously, the battle between RWBY and the robot had taken up most of the news broadcasts, but the article that caught Jasiir's attention the most was one of the "obituaries."

 _Noted book seller Tukson Delsole has been killed._ Jasiir's heart skipped a beat. He'd been in Tukson's Book Trade just over a week earlier, and now the man had been murdered. The police had no suspect, and his only known relative was his daughter, Oreona, a student at Beacon.

Shutting his scroll, the khajiit vowed to prevent such a fate from befalling her or any of his students. They were _his_ responsibility while they were there, damn it.

* * *

"Students. Today, we will be learning about fighting in utter darkness."

The predictable question was asked, this time by innocent little Ruby. "Why would we have to learn that? I can't think of any situation where we would."

Fortunately, Jasiir had already experienced such a situation more than once in his career, not that he could ever tell the true details of those experiences. "You may be forced to fight at night when the moon is dark or set and clouds block out the stars, or you may need to delve into deep caves where no outside light will ever reach. At those times, even Faunus have a difficult time seeing, and you'll need to learn how to use your other senses to replace your sight. Faunus students can choose to skip this lesson, due to their natural night vision." He pointedly looked at the nearly half-dozen Faunus students currently in the classroom, only surreptitiously locking eyes with Blake so as not to accidently expose her. "Now, for our first spar, hmm, let's see. How about…Pyrrha Nikos."

As she stood and left to get her combat gear, the professor could hear the students murmuring.

"Man, she's gonna crush him."

"Did you see how she destroyed Team CRDL, earlier?"

"Wouldn't want to be in Mr. Daytha's boots by the end of this."

They quieted down when Pyrrha reentered the room, Milo and Akouo in her hand and on her arm, respectively.

Jasiir armed himself similarly, although his sword remained sheathed for the moment, and his scroll was in his hand. "Would someone shut off the lights, please?" he asked as he worked on something on the little screen.

When the room was plunged into near-complete darkness with the only light being provided by the dimmed Aura monitors for the two combatants, he finished his work and spoke again.

"I have sent a program to your scrolls that provides light amplification. In essence, you'll be able to watch the fight as a Faunus would. Study what you see, for any of you may be next to fight." He drew his sword, a reinforced silver blade in the 2nd Era Khajiit style, and raised his shield in a more closed version of Pyrrha's posture. "Are you ready, Miss Nikos?"

She nodded curtly. "Yes, Professor."

The two stood for some time, studying each other for potential weaknesses. Jasiir found himself impressed with whoever had trained the young warrior because of how few there were; she was nearly as good as him, even though she had decades less experience and training. The keyword, however, was "nearly."

He took a step back and to his right; she mirrored the movement by stepping forward and to her right. As a testament to his decades of training and years of thievery, his step made nary a sound, despite his heavy armor, while the click of Pyrrha's heel against the wooden floor was like a thunderclap in the silent room.

With his Night Eye ability, Jasiir could see the maiden cringe for an instant at what she knew to be a mistake. Further impressing him was her rapid recovery, spinning on the spot and throwing Akouo at him. Even before it reached him, she was charging with Milo transformed to its spear form.

However, he had dodged rather than deflected the thrown shield. Milo struck empty air on its thrust, which was corrected for with a wide, three-hundred-sixty-degree sweep that clanged against his shield. By that point, his sword slashed across her back, throwing her to the ground.

Although she rolled with the impact and was back on her feet in an instant, a gasp rolled throughout the room: The Invincible Girl had been hit, and her Aura had dropped by a full ten percent.

As a bonus for Pyrrha, the roll had brought her to the position where her shield had recoiled from the far wall to a stop. Realizing that, in the darkness and against a Faunus, offense was a lower priority than defense, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths through her nose, concentrating on sounds, smells, and touch to find Jasiir.

Feeling a faint displacement of air behind her, she bent backwards as his sword swished through the air where her shoulders had been. Carrying her momentum through the motion, Milo, shifted back into sword form, swept through a gap in Jasiir's defenses and struck his chest-plate.

The cat stumbled back, a smile on his face. "Well done," he whispered.

The two warriors continued fighting back and forth for nearly an hour, Aura being slowly chipped away on both sides. Finally, another swing of Milo was blocked by Professor Daytha's shield, he knocked aside Akouo with a mighty blow from his sword, and his boot connected high on her chest where her armor did not protect. That impact knocked her down and dropped her Aura into the red.

The Faunus' blade returned to its sheath, and he offered a hand to pull her back to her feet. "I am most impressed, Miss Nikos. I had decades of experience and natural night vision on my side and you still held your own for quite some time without the use of your Semblance. You may return to your seat. Lights." When the room brightened back to its normal levels, he lectured the class. "Students, I would like you all to follow Pyrrha's example. She listened and felt for my movements rather than try to strain her situationally-inadequate eyesight to find me. No matter how silently a person or other being can move, there will be, if nothing else, the slightest displacement of air to indicate where they are. If you can learn how to read these air movements, nothing can sneak up on you. Write that down so that you may remember that."

As the students were writing, everyone was surprised when the bell to end class rang. Jasiir looked at the clock and found that, yes, the allotted class time had indeed expired.

"That time passed faster than I realized. Very well, class dismissed." When the class packed their things, a sheet of paper fell out of the messy sheaf carried by an orange-haired girl with blue eyes. The cat picked it up, as they were the last ones in the room. "Miss Valkyrie, I believe this…is…yours." He trailed off as he caught sight of the words written on the paper; they looked to be a poem of some kind. "I never took you to be the bardic type." He noted the title and a key word near the end. "'Boop?' 'Magnhild?' This…is about you. And…oh." Jasiir smiled as he handed the song, as he realized it was, to the now-blushing child. "If you love him, tell him."

Nora looked to her feet. "I can't."

"And why not?"

He could see her lip quivering as she nibbled on it at a nervous pace. Finally, she answered, "I don't want to lose him. We've been together, but not 'together'-together for so long that we're more like brother and sister than even friends. What if telling him drives him away? We have no parents and no home. He's all I have–"

Jasiir stopped her by cupping her chin in his fingers. "That is not true. You have your team. You have Beacon. You have your friends. Ren would never abandon you because of how you feel; his taking care of you for so many years is proof of that." Seeing that she was still unconvinced, he gestured to one of the rows of seating. "Please, have a seat and listen to a story I have."

"Isn't that Port's thing?"

The professor chuckled. "Yes, he does tend to do that. However, my stories are more about lessons than past glories."

When the two were seated, he began his tale.

"Forty years ago, my older brother went off to fight in an effort to protect our people, and he was slain. My mother, heartbroken, died of grief months later. My father withdrew into his own grief, leaving me to raise myself, for the most part. The only help I received regularly was from a childhood friend of mine, Sapphire. She was far better off, but she still cared about me. I developed feelings for her, but I refused to act on them for the same reasons as you." He looked down and sighed. "After twenty five years, both of us remained single, and I finally asked why she hadn't taken a mate. That was when she revealed that she had had feelings for me nearly all along, and I had been too oblivious to notice. We were married and had a child, a son, by a year later." His smile dropped. "Then, ten years ago, some racist monsters attacked our village, killing my whole family. My father, wife, and son were all taken before I could do anything. My son was not even five." He wiped away the tears that started to form. "The point of me telling you this is that life can be hard and short. If you can find love, go for it. Not taking a chance is one of the greatest wastes in life."

"What was his name?"

Jasiir looked up at Nora. "What?"

"What was your son's name?"

That set the tears flowing. "In my home, we didn't name our children until they reached the age of six."

"Oh." She looked at her hands and twiddled her thumbs. "What were you planning to name him?"

He pondered for a moment, trying to remember the conversations he'd had with his wife about a name for their son when he reached a naming age. After a moment, he remembered her last suggestion. "Ajo'siir. 'Wonderful Light.'"

* * *

On the rooftop that night, two swords clashed: one white, one red and gold. Jaune and Pyrrha struck at each other, blades rising to block the strikes. For a moment, their weapons locked, Jaune using his superior strength to push his mentor back.

Jasiir, however, noticed the glaring hole in his defenses, as did Pyrrha.

She used her Semblance to push him away, knocked away his next swing, and then kicked his legs out from under him. Sheathing Milo, she offered a hand to pull Jaune back to his feet. "Well done. Your sword play's improved, immensely."

Jaune slid Crocea Mors back into its sheath. "I couldn't have done it without you."

The old Faunus cleared his throat. "Now, which lesson would you like to take next: shield use or Aura?"

The younger man turned away and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm thinking we skip those, tonight. Might go for a jog or something."

A frown creased the cat's lips. "What is it that is troubling you, child?"

"It's…Weiss."

Pyrrha visibly bit back her feelings, her voice minutely quavering as she asked, "Oh. What about her?"

"I asked her to the dance, and she shot me down." He scoffed. "Big surprise, right?"

The shakiness in her voice worsening, the girl tried to console her partner. "Well, as the saying goes, there's…plenty of fish in the sea."

"Heh. Easy for you to say. You've probably got guys clamoring over each other to ask you out."

Jasiir saw the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes when she replied. "You'd be surprised."

As was becoming distressingly usual, Jaune failed to notice. "Oh please. If you don't get a date to the dance, I'll wear a dress. Hah." With that, he walked away.

Pyrrha remained, shudders of sorrow rippling through her body. Professor Daytha walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Go and ask him."

"But I–"

He smiled. "You are very kind-hearted, Pyrrha Nikos. At some times, however, a kind heart can be an obstacle as much as a virtue. This is one of those times. In the words of Professor Ozpin, 'It is up to you to take the first step.' If you do not take the leap, Jaune will never realize what you truly feel."

"I…I'll try."

Jasiir shook his head. "Not good enough. Life can be hard and short. There isn't enough time for 'try.'" He moved back into "Professor" mode. "You will find Jaune as soon as you can, and you will ask him to the dance. 'Be as a stone that protects him from the harshness of the world, firm yet safe.'"

She tilted her head. "What was that?"

He closed his eyes. "A saying my father passed to me when I had my first child almost fifteen years ago."

* * *

Across the campus, a more sinister discussion was transpiring. "And, finally, Pyrrha Nikos." Emerald pulled up a thumbnail image of the girl in question on her scroll.

"Ah, the Invincible Girl." Cinder almost absently replied as she worked on her dancing dress.

"She's good, but I wouldn't say 'invincible,'" Mercury retorted without looking away from his comic book.

That got Cinder's attention. "Do tell."

Emerald and Mercury took turns explaining. "Her Semblance is Polarity, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by watching her."

He put down his comic book. "After she made contact with my 'boots,' she was able to move them around however she wanted. But she only made slight adjustments."

"Just enough to make it _look_ _like_ she's untouchable. She doesn't broadcast her power, so it puts her opponents at a disadvantage."

Cinder thought aloud. "Hmm. People assume she's fated for victory, when she's really taken Fate into her own hands. Interesting. Add her to the list."

While Emerald input the requisite commands into her scroll, Mercury spoke up. "Thing is, I don't think she's the greatest threat to the plan."

"Oh?"

"It's that new Faunus, Professor Daytha. After my spar with him, I looked up what I could on him, and there was nothing from before he was hired at Beacon. Whatever training he's received, he's damn good. With neither of us using our Semblances, he's leagues beyond me, and I mean that one."

Emerald joined in. "Plus, he could figure out that I was using my Semblance on him. On the less-confirmed side, he's apparently displayed some weird abilities."

"From talking with the students, one of his shields can apparently store and release energy much like Adam's Semblance; he used it to one-shot Team CRDL's Dove Bronzewing, who has a decent level of Aura."

"And he can perform feats that I've never even heard of: channeling fire through his sword without the use of Dust, projecting healing energy, enhancing his speed. When Roman chased down Team RWBY in that _Paladin_ , witnesses said that Jasiir rode in on…let's see." She pulled up the news article and read one of the eyewitness accounts. "'A skeletal horse covered in purple flames.'"

Cinder put down her sewing project. "Well then, let's make sure he can't interfere. Have Neapolitan trail and study him. Mercury, see what the rats can find. But don't take action against him, yet. We can't afford to arouse suspicion, especially not this soon."

Mercury slumped back to the floor. "Ugh. I hate waiting."

"Don't worry, Mercury." She resumed sewing. "We have a fun weekend ahead of us."

* * *

 **Author's Note: And here is where we see RWBY canon beginning to fray from the Dovahkiin's presence. The difference is minor now, but it will increase in later chapters (particularly starting two chapters from now).**


	6. Chapter 6

Jasiir stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom attached to his office, studying the attire he planned to wear to the school dance, which was to start in a couple of hours.

The red leather plates over his chest were indicative of the lower protection of this armor compared to his normal armor, but their arrangement and aesthetics made it more acceptable as "formal wear" than standard armor plating. As he examined the armor, he thought back to where he had obtained it: from the steaming pile of viscera that had once been the vampiric Lord Haarkon, alongside his sword. After repairing it, he'd traded out the brooch that secured the cape in place, which had originally showed Haarkon's own emblem, for one that displayed a 3rd-Era Imperial Dragon, which was becoming Jasiir's symbol here on Remnant.

Fitted at the end of the sleeves of the body section of the armor were a set of supple leather bracers with interlocking golden rings bolted on, a gift from Ulfric Stormcloak on then-Lejule's second wedding day.

Currently completing the ensemble was a set of calf-high black leather boots, although the leather wasn't armor-grade to focus more on comfort than defense.

Finally, he lifted out of his jewelry box one of the few artifacts he had brought with him: the Gaulder Amulet. When he clicked the clasp closed around his neck, he smiled at the familiar surge of vitality of all forms felt across his body.

As a last step of preparation, he combed his fingers through his hair to remove any knots. However, he noticed a flicker of… _something_ reflected in the mirror. In fact, if he hadn't fought a number of invisible enemies in his career and therefore known what to look for, he would have missed it, entirely. He coughed, using the sound to disguise a whispered Shout. "Las!" Moving quickly, he entered the main room of his office, keeping only the corner of his eye directed at the spot where the flicker had been. Just the corner, however, was enough to see the diminutive humanoid form that was otherwise invisible. "It is impolite to spy on someone."

An embarrassed squeak preceded the figure's return to visibility. She was a little girl, probably a foot shorter than Jasiir, with green eyes and two long black pig-tails wearing what he could best describe as a modified maid's outfit.

He walked over to her and knelt down enough to bring his eyes level with hers. "Are you lost?"

She nodded.

"What's your name?"

She pointed to her neck and shook her head.

He got the meaning, immediately. "You can't sp–wait. Could you tilt your head back for a moment?"

She instead bowed her head and shrank back.

He leaned back and held his hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to see something."

There was a moment where she seemed about to bolt, but she relented and allowed him to look.

A gentle touch confirmed what he thought he'd seen. "You are a remarkably lucky little girl, to survive being stabbed in the throat. May I try something?"

She shrank even further back, pulled out her scroll, and typed out a single word: **What?**

"Long ago, I learned a technique to use my Aura to heal someone else's injuries. I will admit that I haven't tried it with such an old would, but no one should be without a voice."

The girl looked at him with her head tilted. **Why would you help someone you don't know?**

His return smile was a rueful one. "You have had a hard life. The least one can do is show kindness to those who have suffered."

 **You know nothing about me.**

"That wound tells me all I need to know. Will you let me try to heal you?"

She seemed to debate with herself for a moment. Finally, she typed, **Do it.**

He smiled warmly, pressed his hands against both sides of her neck, and concentrated his magicka on the two scars. His eyes closed, his mind focusing on the threads of restorative magic connecting his fingers, and he could feel the old scar tissue dissolve under the energy, new growth replacing it. He also felt her true age, not the age she was pretending to be, but he decided against pointing it out, having learned from both of his wives what would happen if a man mentioned a woman's age. To ensure the success of the act, he channeled a whispered thu'um into his work. "Vokren."

The girl noticed, despite the whisper. **What was that?**

"A prayer for healing." He noted that her flesh, inside as well as out, was mended. "Finished. It may take some time for you to remember your voice, but you should again be able to speak, soon."

 **If this works, thank you.**

"No need to mention it. Now, let's see if we can find your team." He offered his hand, which she took. "By the way, what **is** your name?"

 **It's Napoli. And my team is from Haven.**

"Sounds rather pretty. And we'll be heading to the exchange students' dormitory."

As they walked into the hallway, a Beacon student passed in front of them, and Napoli froze, seemingly terrified.

After a moment, Jasiir remembered who it was: Oreonna Delsole, daughter of Tukson. He looked at both of them, Oreonna looking over her shoulder for a second before continuing on. Napoli and Oreonna had nearly identical faces, a factoid the khajiit filed away for later when Miss Delsole walked around a corner and out of sight and Napoli relaxed.

* * *

Violin music rebounded off the walls of the ballroom, filling every nook and cranny. The room was nearly as full of people, as well. Most of them were students from Beacon, although Jasiir noted a few from the other academies, as well.

He thought back to that encounter with the stalker, running through the encounter in is mind a number of times. To his satisfaction, he reckoned that he had played up the "naïve idiot" part well enough to fool the spy; he wasn't a fool. He knew that she would report back to whoever her boss was. If he ever came to blows with that someone, then they would likely underestimate him, a fatal mistake so many others had in the last decade.

A joyful cry drew his attention to the ballroom's entrance that emptied onto the campus courtyard. "Oh, you look beautiful!"

Yang was hopping up and down while her sister was barely keeping her balance. Ruby groaned. "Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss **fights** in these?" Her stumbling punctuated her question and elicited giggling from the blond.

A moment later, Blake and the monkey, whose name Jasiir had learned was Sun Wukong, walked in, although their first dance was not with each other. Yang was Blake's first dance partner while Sun stood off to the side. Jasiir was glad to see that Blake was not looking anywhere near as tired as she had been the last few days; someone had evidently talked her into getting some much-needed sleep. The khajiit made a mental note to find and thank whoever that had been.

He wasn't the only one, apparently, as the rest of Team RWBY shared a private conversation before splitting off, Weiss moving to tend to the decorations and Yang returning to the greeter's podium, leaving Ruby alone. The professor's sensitive ears weren't needed to hear Ruby's desperate, "Does this mean I can change out of these stupid things and into my hood, now?" She didn't see Ozpin walk up next to her, and Jasiir let their conversation be private.

The next pair to arrive was Mercury and Emerald, the former of whom was swaggering. Yang, however, seemed to trust them. "You're just in time."

Mercury's smirk widened. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

The party had been ongoing for nearly an hour, and, apparently, almost everyone who was going to come had arrived. Several of the teachers had grouped together around Professor Port, who was telling another of his Grimm-hunting stories.

A man in a white militaristic uniform tapped Glynda on the shoulder and held out his gloved hand as an invitation, but she refused until Ozpin nodded to her.

Jasiir was by himself, a bottle of Honningbrew mead procured by his dremora butler while he had been preparing for the dance in his hand. A clearing throat drew his attention to the punch bowl, where Ruby was standing. "Umm, Professor, I don't think alcohol is allowed here. Sets a bad example."

He took a last swig and tucked the bottle into a belt pouch. "My apologies."

"So, why are you hiding out here? Socially awkward?"

A chuckle escaped his lips. "In a way. I'm not much one for formal events. Like you, I believe."

"Yep."

Strengthening murmurs announced the next arrivals, Jaune and Pyrrha. The former was wearing a fancier version of the school uniform, while the latter was wearing a flowing red backless dress that did nothing but accentuate her natural beauty.

Jasiir caught Pyrrha's eyes and nodded with a smile, causing her cheeks to flush as Jaune led her to the dance floor. The khajiit walked over to the "DJs," as he had heard the duo in charge of the music were called, and pointed at the new couple. The DJs nodded and swapped out one of the music discs for one behind their counter, and the violin music immediately stopped and switched to a more upbeat song using sounds Jasiir had never heard before.

In response to the music, Nora dragged Ren to join Jaune and Pyrrha, and all of Team JNPR began dancing together.

Leaving them to it, Professor Daytha slipped out into the night air and leaned against the door frame. Ruby followed him out, and they both caught sight of a figure dressed in black leaping across the roof of the building across the courtyard. Professor and student exchanged glances and took off after the figure.

* * *

The sight of the dead or unconscious guard outside the CCT told the both of them their next step, although they had different ideas of what it was. "Take off those ridiculous shoes and find another teacher. Now."

A locker thumped down behind them and opened to reveal Ruby's weapon, Crescent Rose. "But I can–"

"No. We don't know how powerful our prey is or whether they have reinforcements. Go!"

She took off the shoes and zoomed away in a cloud of rose petals.

He pulled out a paper scroll and cast the spell inscribed upon it, disappearing into the wind as he raced to the top of the tower, stopping when he saw the intruder in the communications room.

Sneaking in through a vent, he saw the various screens light up white with a black queen chess piece. When he reached the trespasser, he heard her say, "No…we're done here," as she stood up.

Jasiir conjured a bound dagger and pressed it against her throat. "Yes, you are."

That was when something unexpected happened. She pressed her hand against his hip, and a physical blade made of glass formed in such a way as to slip between the plates of his armor while it was forming. His Aura protected well enough against physical impact, but the blade had managed to form within the boundary of his Aura, bypassing it just as easily as his armor.

He shrugged off the pain quickly, as it hadn't been the first time he'd been stabbed, but she still managed to twist out of his grasp. Then she gestured, and the blade shattered. His yowl of pain might have been heard at the party as he collapsed to the ground.

"Get away from him!" Ruby charged forward, swinging her scythe to force the intruder to leap away from Jasiir.

While in the air, the mystery woman formed a bow and three arrows from the same glass and fired at the wounded cat.

Ruby rushed in, splintering one arrow with her scythe and using her Aura to tank the other two, which exploded and broke part of the floor.

Jasiir and his student were saved from further harm when the elevator opened again, revealing the same uniformed man who had danced with Glynda. However, in the brief second that Ruby turned to look at him, the woman darted into the same vent Jasiir had used to enter the room and escaped.

* * *

General Ironwood opened up his scroll. "We have an intruder on Beacon's campus. All available guards, search for a woman in a black cat-suit. Also, I need a medical team to the CCT communications room, stat. I have wounded, one gravely."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who thought Lejule/Jasiir would kill Neo, surprise. Instead, we have a direct first encounter between him and Cinder, with her using an underhanded method to defeat him in order to bypass his threat level (Let's be honest. Even at full Fall Maiden power, Cinder is still an ant to a full-power dovahkiin's boot.).**

 **Also, there is a nod to the AU created by LongSean22 and SuperKamek. A cookie to anyone who finds it.**


	7. Chapter 7

"They. Were here."

Professor Ozpin buried his head in his hands as General Ironwood spoke, his patience wearing thin.

"Ozpin, they were **here**!"

Glynda's patience ran out, first. "We are very much aware of that. Thank you, James."

The soldier spread his hands in exasperation. "Fantastic. You're aware. Now, are we going to do something about it, or should we just continue to stay the course and ignore what's right in front of us?"

Before the tension could cycle any higher, the elevator chimed. "Come in."

Its doors opened, and out stepped Ruby Rose. "Heh. Sorry I took so long; someone pushed all of the buttons on the elevator on the way up." She looked around. "It wasn't me."

"Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess. I'd feel better if my bad-guy-catching record wasn't oh-for-three and someone didn't get hurt." When she noted that her attempt at levity had no effect, she rubbed the back of her head. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for. Got it."

Ironwood stepped forward. "Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to tell you that I believe that what you did was exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat, called for backup, took action when someone was in danger, and you did the very best you could."

"Thank you, sir."

Ozpin stood and leaned on his desk. "Now, the General has already informed us of the events that…transpired last night. But, now that you've rested, we were wondering if you could tell us more."

Glynda launched into her interrogator mode. "Was anyone with her? Did she look familiar to you at all?"

"I…I don't know; she was wearing a mask, and she never said a word to me. But I know she fought with glass. I don't think that was her Semblance, though. Her clothes lit up when she attacked."

Glynda cupped her chin. "Save for the glass, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby."

Ironwood waved it off with a valid point. "Embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

Ruby noted Miss Goodwitch's words. "Wait, you think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?"

The three adults looked at each other, with Ozpin being the first to look back. "It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."

"Actually, I…I think I remember her saying something about a hideout or something…in the Southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

Ozpin hummed. "Interesting."

Glynda's brow creased. "I thought you said the intruder never–"

Ozpin walked up next to the woman and interrupted her. "Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team. You have a big day ahead of you."

"Anytime!" She turned to walk away.

"And Miss Rose?" When Ruby turned back, Ozpin continued. "Please try to be…discreet about this matter."

"Yes, sir." She nodded and entered the elevator.

At that moment, Jasiir dropped his Invisibility spell.

Ironwood's hand darted for the under-jacket holster for his revolver. "What the–?"

Ozpin was equally shocked, but for a different reason. "Professor Daytha, you are supposed to be in the infirmary, resting and healing."

The Faunus lifted his hand away, revealing the energy of a healing spell pouring into the stab wound. "While I am not in the infirmary or resting, I am healing. Besides, I have some things to say that are both very important and that Ruby could not tell you."

Oz sat down. "Very well. Since you are here, you may as well speak your piece."

"First, what does a black queen mean to you?"

It was Ironwood who answered. "I'm afraid that's classified."

"Then it is related to your enemies, and you may want to check your systems. Your intruder did something that made a black queen chess piece appear on every screen in the Communications Room."

That caught Ozpin's attention. "I'll have a virus scan of every system run immediately."

Glynda nodded and pulled out her scroll to make the note. "Now, you implied that there was something else?"

Jasiir nodded. "Yes. I was able to catch the scent of the intruder: an unusual mix of simmering embers and autumn leaves."

Ozpin had to force his jaw not to drop. _Could he know?_

Glynda and Ironwood were more open in their surprise. "Autumn leaves?"

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

The General and Miss Goodwitch looked to Ozpin for guidance. After a long, uncomfortable moment where he studied Professor Daytha, he finally nodded. "I believe we can trust him. Follow us, Mr. Daytha."

The party of four walked into the elevator. The tiger broke the silence that they had lapsed into with the obvious question. "Where are we going?"

"The Vault, under the school."

"What is being protected down there?"

Ironwood looked over his shoulder. "Very perceptive. You'll see when we get down there. It's not secure enough to talk about it here."

Thankfully, Jasiir took the hint and was silent for the rest of the elevator ride.

* * *

When they reached the Vault, Ozpin began the explanation. "What fairy tales and legends exist where you come from, Lejule?"

"There are many, most of which are true to some extent."

"The same can be said here. One of the true ones is the story of the Seasonal Maidens. Four girls helped warmed the heart of an old wizard who then granted them extraordinary power; some would call it magic, for it goes beyond Aura and Semblance. They became the embodiments of the four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall."

"Did this power make them immortal?"

Glynda took up the torch. "No. Just as no two seasons are alike, the power transfers to a new host when a Maiden dies."

"By blood, or by a more spiritual method?"

"It doesn't always pass to a family member, but the process is rather…intimate."

"In what way?"

It was Ironwood's turn. "The power of a Maiden is passed to whoever is in the dying Maiden's final thoughts, unless the person is either a man or too old to be eligible for the power."

"'A man or too old?' Only young women can become Seasonal Maidens?"

The expository role went back to Ozpin. "Yes. However, an unprecedented situation occurred recently: The current Fall Maiden was attacked, and a portion of her Maiden powers were stolen by her attacker."

"Our intruder from last night."

That caught everyone else off-guard. "What makes you say that?" Ironwood asked.

Jasiir looked at the General with an expression that screamed _Are you serious?_ "Isn't it obvious? Fall's attacker will never be satisfied until she has claimed all of the power. That woman likely knows the Maiden is here and uploaded that 'virus' to find a way to get access to the Vault so that she can finish the job."

Ozpin smiled slightly, but said nothing.

Finally, they reached the end of the chamber, where two stasis tanks were connected to a computer. One of them was occupied: Amber, the damaged Fall Maiden.

Lejule crossed his arms as best he could without breaking the healing spell's connection. "I assume that she is the Fall Maiden."

Ironwood nodded. "Yes. We're currently keeping her alive using state-of-the-art Atlas technology, but even the best medical technology is only prolonging her passing."

"May I try something?"

"Meaning no disrespect, but I don't see what you could do that the best doctors in the Kingdoms couldn't."

The cat smiled. "I would still like to try; it's the right thing to do."

Ozpin chuckled. "At this point, anything you can do to help would be appreciated."

Jasiir nodded and walked up to Amber's tank. Taking a deep breath, he broke off the healing spell on himself and redirected his magic to her. Barely seconds later, he stopped the flow, bowed his head, and began crying.

Ironwood looked back and forth between the Maiden and Professor Daytha. "What happened?"

The Faunus' hands clenched into fists and his tail flicked back and forth. "Whoever attacked the Maiden sundered her soul, and there is nothing I can do about that. When I find the intruder, again, I will destroy her." His words echoed with power.

Ozpin walked toward the furious teacher. "We'll find her. In the meantime, if you're feeling up for it, I have a mission I'd like your help on. It concerns the information Miss Rose brought us."

* * *

Team RWBY walked out of the amphitheater having just acquired a mission that would take them to the Southeast of Vale. However, Ozpin's words of warning still lingered in their heads.

Yang was the first to break the silence. "Well, that wasn't exactly uplifting."

Blake, her ever-cynical partner, noted, "But it's the truth."

Ruby sought to buoy her team's spirits. "It's gonna be tough, but I know we can do it!"

Another Beacon student crossed their path, pointing at a landed Bullhead. "Hey, Team CFVY is back!"

RWBY ran up to the older student team, Blake catching the attention of the team's Faunus member. "Velvet, are you okay?"

The bunny girl nodded. "I'm fine. I had Yatsuhashi to look out for me." She gestured toward the green-armored giant as he walked by.

Weiss showed her own brand of worry. "Your mission was supposed to end a week ago. What happened?"

"Nothing happened. It's just…there were just so many." Seeing RWBY's expressions fall, she added, "Oh, but don't worry. You first-years are just shadowing Huntsmen, so you should be fine."

Yang wasn't convinced; after all, the mission Team RWBY was on was meant to be for older students. "Riighttt."

One of Velvet's teammates called for her. "I should go. Be safe, ok." With that, she walked away.

When RWBY looked at each other as if having second thoughts, Ruby took it upon herself to motivate them. "We can do this. We've never backed down before, and we're not going to start now."

Blake nodded. "Right."

"Besides, it won't only be us out there. We'll be fighting alongside a genuine Huntsman!"

Yang pumped her fist. "Yeah!"

A minute or so later, they found out their assigned Huntsman. "Surprised" didn't scratch the surface of their reactions.

"Why, hello girls! Who's ready to fight for their lives?"

The way Weiss said it perfectly summed up their thoughts. "Professor Oobleck?"

The normally-disheveled green-haired teacher was decked out in a long tan coat and a hat that wouldn't look out of place in a savannah/jungle adventure movie. He still had the same yellow tie, although it was straight at the moment. He paced in front of Team RWBY as though addressing a squad of soldier recruits. "Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, girls. Seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission, I can assure you that we will not be establishing a single base of operations. Rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp at any defensible locations we may stumble upon. I've packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our course, and readied the airship. And…" He stopped in front of Weiss and leaned in. "It's _Doctor_ Oobleck. I didn't earn the PhD for fun, thank you very much.

Weiss locked eyes with Blake, confusion leaving her only able to manage a weak, "Uhh…"

Oobleck either didn't notice or didn't care. "Come now, children. According to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind…schedule!" He zoomed off to their Bullhead at a speed that rivaled Ruby.

Speaking of Ruby, she tried to put a positive spin on their situation. "Well, alright then. Looks like we're going to save the world with Doctor Oobleck – ok, when you say it out loud, it sounds worse."

A pouty girl's voice sounded out from behind them. "'Save the world?' You're going on world-saving missions without us?! I'm hurt, sad!" Nora put her chin into the crook of her thumb. "Maybe a little hungry. That last one's not your fault, though… _Ren_." She glared at her partner and boyfriend, who simply crossed his arms and turned his back to her, although both of them were smiling despite the exchange of barbs. Teams RWBY and JNPR had noticed the increased amount of time they spent, as Nora would put it, "together-together."

Jaune decided to draw attention away from his rambunctious teammate. "Sounds exciting. Where are you going?"

Ruby held off on the details. "Oh, just outside the Kingdom."

That brought Nora's mind away from the fake spat with Ren. "Hey, so are we!"

Pyrrha elaborated, "Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village."

Nora leapt onto Ren's arm. "We're gonna be deputies!"

Ren smiled at Nora. "We set out tomorrow."

Sun and Neptune approached the group. "Then you can party with us tonight."

"We're shadowing a crimes specialist. All inner-city detective stuff." Neptune leaned in faux-conspiratorially. "We get junior badges."

Jaune's eyes lit up at the mention of that sign of heroism.

Sun then revealed the real reason his team had chosen that mission. "We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk. So, we thought this might be a better way to check out the Kingdom when its…ya' know…normal."

Ruby tried to put up a defense, but Oobleck preempted her. "Well–"

"Four minutes, ladies!"

Sun, Neptune, and JNPR looked at RWBY in sympathy.

Ruby finally managed, "Well, uh…wish us luck!"

The ten teens went their separate ways, with Team RWBY walking to their Bullhead and JNPR and the two members of SSSN returning to their dorms.

On the VTOL, RWBY received another surprise. As the first on, Ruby was the first to see and comment on it. "Professor Daytha? But, you got stabbed."

The Faunus combat instructor laughed dryly. "Not my first time, and I've been through worse."

Weiss asked a better question. "Why did Ozpin assign two Huntsmen to this mission? Shouldn't you be leading another team?" Secretly, she was relieved that a known and very high-quality fighter was with them.

"The Headmaster determined that, as this mission was meant for more experienced students, I could make up for you being first-years."

Weiss' trademark indignant "Hey!" was nearly lost to the roar of the engines.

Blake put her hand on Weiss' shoulder. "He's right, you know."

* * *

As the Bullhead flew over the city, Yang struck up a conversation with Doctor Oobleck. "I guess I just never saw you as much of a fighter."

"I admit I fancy myself as more of an intellectual, but I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles."

Ruby didn't know that word, although she thought she did. "Like the mushroom?"

Blake leaned in and corrected her. "Those are truffles."

The crimsonette hoped she would get it on the second try. "Like the sprout?"

Her sister was the one who crushed the hope this time. "Those are Brussels's."

Oobleck continued his lecture. "Besides, given my expertise in the field of history, as well as my dabblings in the archaeological surveys, our dear Headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular…assignment!"

Weiss, being an Atlas native, failed to see the significance. "What does history have to do with this?"

Needless to say, the Doctor was not pleased. "Why, what a preposterous question, you silly girl. Why, history is the backbone of our very society! And the liver! Probably the kidneys, if I were to wager."

"And that means…?"

"The Southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves. But, it is also the location of one of the Kingdom's greatest failures."

Ruby, as a native of Vale, was able to continue that train of thought. "Mountain Glen."

Hearing the name jogged Yang's memory. "That's right. It was an expansion of Vale. In the end, it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city."

Jasiir nodded, as if he had seen such a thing before.

Oobleck nodded, himself, in a different manner. "Correct! And now it stands, abandoned, as a dark reminder."

Blake's experience with the White Fang kicked in. "And a likely place for a hideout."

The Doctor adjusted his glasses. "Precisely."

Professor Daytha stood and walked over to Ruby. "By the way, what breed of dog do you have?" He patted her backpack for emphasis.

The denial she prepared died when Zwei barked and poked his head out of the bag. In an entirely useless gesture, she whispered to the dog. "Get back into the bag."

Blake leapt over to the bulkhead beside Oobleck, while Yang blinked at her sister. "Okay, two things. One, why did you bring Zwei, Rubes? Two, how did you know he was there, Professor?"

The Faunus' answer was very succinct: He tapped the side of his nose.

Ruby needed a bit longer. "Well, I couldn't leave him alone. Who knows how long we'll be gone?"

Oobleck, however, was very stern when he spoke. "We're going in to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility, and you decided to bring…a dog?" Before Ruby could formulate an answer, he continued in an unexpected direction. "Genius!" Everyone else in the Bullhead stared at him as he rushed over and grabbed Zwei from the bag. "Canines are historically known for their perceptive noses and heightened sense of sound, making them excellent companions for hunts such as ours!"

Greedily accepting the unexpected praise, Ruby placed her hand on her chest. "I'm a genius." That comment caused everyone except Blake and Oobleck to plant their face in their palm.

Professor Daytha muttered, "If you bring a dog to a battlefield, it should be able to fight."

Yang planted her fists on her hips. "Hey, Zwei **can** fight."

"Until I see it, I will maintain my doubts."

At that moment, the ruins of Mountain Glen came into view, and the Bullhead's passengers prepared to disembark. As the girls jumped out, they, with the exception of Blake, drew their weapons. Oobleck dropped out as if the fall was but a single step on a staircase. Jasiir, with both the physically largest body and wearing heavy armor, raised a small cloud of dust as he landed heavily.

The Doctor took both charge and a sip from his coffee thermos. "Ladies. You still may be students, but, as of this moment, your first mission as Huntresses has begun. From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"

Team RWBY nodded. Blake asked, "What are your orders, Doctor?"

"Ah, straight to the chase. I like it! As you've been informed, the southeast quadrant has recently been marked as a hot spot of Grimm activity. Now there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being–"

"Grimm."

The girls looked at Jasiir with confusion. Ruby was the first to speak. "Uh…what?"

The Faunus nodded toward a spot further down the road they had been dropped on. "One beowolf at about a hundred yards."

The Huntresses-in-training turned around and readied their weapons, but Oobleck held up his hand. "Stop."

"Huh?"

"There are a number of reasons Grimm would congregate in this particular area. The most likely of which would be their attraction to negativity. Sadness, envy, loneliness…hatred. All qualities likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent." Ruby asked what they were to do next. "We wait. We track. If this specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."

Ever impatient, Yang asked, "How long do we wait?"

"It's uncertain. Hours, days, weeks. Why, lone Grimm have been known to stay isolated from the pack for months!"

"And there's the whole pack," Jasiir dryly noted.

Then Weiss did the exact wrong thing: she spoke loudly. "What?"

"And now they've seen us."

"What?!"

Then Oobleck proved that he had his incompetent moments, as well, bellowing, "AND NOW THEY'VE SEEN US!"

Ruby, her ears ringing from the nearby shouting, meekly said, "I take it tracking is out of the question?"

The tiger scoffed. "What was your first clue?"

Yang watched the approaching beowolves. "What's the plan, then?"

Everyone looked to the Doctor. After an uncomfortable pause, he said, "Show me what you girls are capable of."

Ruby planted her scythe in the ground while the rest of the team split up to force the Grimm to do the same. "Cover your ears, Zwei!"

The dog did so as best he could.

The skirmish lasted barely a minute. The two teachers walked up to Ruby, who loaded a new magazine into Crescent Rose. "Heh. Piece of cake."

Oobleck did his best to shatter the aura of invincibility. "Do not celebrate just yet, girls, for I am certain that this is but the first bout of many. Shall we continue?"

After the second encounter, Yang asked, "Hey, Doc, Professor, I was really looking forward to seeing a pro Huntsman in action. You know, fighting, or at least helping us fight."

The teachers each had their own answer. Oobleck waved at the ruins around them as he walked away. "Ah, but I **am** in action. Scouring the ruins of this once-great city for any signs of irregularity. Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism, girls. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination."

Jasiir patted his scabbard. "Also, this mission is as much a test of your skills. It would not do for us to take your test for you."

Oobleck nodded and turned toward the rest. "Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."

Yang glanced away. "Well, yeah. O-of course!"

The Doctor sounded unconvinced. "Hmm."

* * *

As the hours passed, the group encountered more packs of Grimm, mostly beowolves. Each time he was able to speak to only one of the girls, Oobleck asked each of them why they wanted to become a Huntress, and Jasiir was able to learn quite a lot about Team RWBY.

Yang said that she was in it for the adventure, with helping people as something to do on the side.

Weiss claimed that she wanted to uphold her family's "legacy of honor." Jasiir had read up on the Schnee Dust Company, and he hoped she was referring to her grandfather's honor rather than her father's.

Blake declared that her goal was to right the wrongs of the world. Interestingly, Oobleck flustered her with a single-word question: "How?"

Finally, the group caught up with Ruby, who had somehow found a whole roast turkey, had spit it on the spiked end of Crescent Rose, and was holding it out to tease Zwei. When she saw the others approaching, she folded her scythe back to its compact state, the turkey somehow disappearing as she did so. "Sorry, uh, are we ready to keep going?"

After a moment, he replied, "No, I believe that will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon." He tossed his backpack to Yang, who grunted when it hit her chest. "You three and Jasiir set up camp in that building. Oh, and please do make sure there are no more of those… creatures. Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come, Ruby."

When the two walked away, Jasiir led the way into the building, an active Detect Dead spell in his open hand. After looking around, he killed the spell. "We're clear."

The group found a set of stairs that ascended to a corridor. The team searched the various rooms until one was deemed acceptable by Professor Daytha. It had one broken wall facing the street, which would serve as a good lookout point, and the door leading in as the only entry points. The ceiling and the floor of the room above were mostly destroyed, but that room was otherwise intact; the remaining supports for the above floor would serve as good sleeping platforms for the professors.

With his approval, the three girls rolled out the three bedrolls that had been packed by Oobleck and prepared a campfire from wood also found in the pack and ignited by a small amount of Burn Dust from Weiss' supply.

Jasiir, on the other hand, hopped up to one of the support beams and unfurled an old snow bear hide from his own satchel; many, many Skyrim nights had taught him just how valuable such a pelt could be as a field bed.

* * *

As the girls sat by the fire, Yang started griping. "I can't believe we didn't find anything."

Blake provided the valid counterargument. "We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. I guess we can't always have luck on our side."

Weiss, however, had been somewhere else, mentally. "That's not what I meant."

"Huh?"

"Earlier. About 'upholding the legacy.' There's more to it than that."

Yang nodded. "Yeah. No, me too. I mean, I don't know."

Blake stood up. "I don't know, either. I mean, I know what I want to do. I figured I'd always take things one step at a time."

Yang shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter. We all know why we're here." She looked to Weiss. "Right?"

Deciding to change the topic, Weiss looked up at Professor Daytha, who looked like he had already fallen asleep. "How does he do all that?"

Blake walked over to her. "What do you mean?"

"I've watched him as much as I could, and there's no Dust that is applicable for half the things he does, and his feats are too varied for any Semblance."

The raven-haired Faunus nodded. "I've wondered that, myself. At the docks, alone, he did things that would require at least two or three Semblances. And some of it seemed more like magic than anything else."

Any further conversation on that subject was cut off as Doctor Oobleck zipped into the room. "Ah, wonderful! A textbook campfire."

Ruby followed a second later. "Fire!" She rushed over and knelt down with her hands held toward the flames. "So…warm."

"Very good. Eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover, tomorrow, and will need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?"

Ruby raised her hand. "Yo."

Instead of answering, the Doctor rocketed up to an unoccupied beam.

As the crimsonette walked over to the hole in the wall to begin her watch, Yang got her attention. "Hey, did Doctor Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress? I mean…what'd you tell him?"

"Hmm. No, he didn't. Weird. Oh well! Goodnight, guys."

* * *

A beowolf howled in the distance, and Zwei yipped in unease. Ruby leaned over to pet him. "Don't worry. Things will be better, tomorrow." She looked up at the moon.

"Tell me, what is a hero?"

Her head whipped around. Sitting on the broken section of wall in front of her was Professor Daytha, wide awake and looking fully alert. "When did you–?"

"Answer the question."

"Someone who helps people, whether it be by fighting monsters and bad guys or by giving a leg up to those in need. A true hero does it even if there isn't a reward, no matter the risk."

The man smiled. "Exactly. And that is why Bartholomew did not ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress. You know why and embody the reason. A pure soul." He suddenly leaned forward and seemed to focus on something. "You can see farther than me. What is in that building, eight streets away. Third floor."

Ruby raised Crescent Rose to her shoulder and looked through her scope. "Um, it seems to be a woman sitting in a window. She's dressed in some weird armor that looks like it's made of…thin plates of bone with a scaled backing? There're spikes jutting from the shoulders. And she's got a bow of some kind in her hands. Who is she?" She looked up at Jasiir's perch, only to see that he was gone. Gasping, she returned her gaze to the street, searching for him. She found him sprinting toward the building at a speed that even she could barely track.

* * *

Lejule's mind raced from the information Ruby had described. On the one hand, he was absolutely ecstatic to be reunited with his wife. On the other hand, that meant that she was stuck here, too, and the kids were now deprived of both of their parents.

He put all of his Aura's power into his legs and leapt into the room next to the one the woman was sitting in, figuring it would be easier to find a path between two rooms than to head up from the ground floor. When he entered the room, his heart simultaneously fluttered and stopped. As he had thought, there was his wife sitting on the windowsill. On the floor, his children slept on bear-pelt bedding. Between them, a small campfire burned.

The woman stood and walked toward him, the flames highlighting her brilliant red hair and the green streaks of her face paint.

The relief and joy in is voice was palpable. "Aela!"

Her eloquent response was her fist flying into his face.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: And, with that, this marathon of a chapter is done.**

 **To recap: Jasiir knows Cinder's scent, learns of the Fall Maiden, and finds that Aela the Huntress and their two children have been brought to Remnant.**


	8. Chapter 8

Aela had to have put much of her Hircine-granted strength into the blow, for Lejule both felt it even through his Aura and was thrown into the wall hard enough to crack the concrete. "What in Oblivion were you thinking?" Behind his fuming wife, he could see his children awake with a start. "Gallivanting off to some other world at the 'behest' of your ancestor, and I only find out through Akatosh weeks later. Who then, might I add, swept us along as well to this world beneath a single, broken moon and told us to wait in these ruins for you. And, somehow, our children had their moon-race changed by coming here. You better hope you have a damn good explanation for this, or I will start breaking some bones."

He didn't reply with words at first. Instead, he leaned in and touched his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry to have put you through that. I truly am. Every minute I could I have spent trying to find a way back to you and our children. Leaving the way I did is something that should not be forgiven. I'm sorry, my love."

"So, what do we do next?"

The Nord and Khajiit turned at their son's words. He was sitting up, having put on what had once been Archmage Savos Aren's robes, with his hands clasped over his knees. On the other side of the campfire, his step-sister, Ma'isha, was donning the final plates of her dragonbone armor, Volendrung already hooked in its place on her back. When Lejule caught her eyes, she simply smirked. Interestingly, both seemed to have already adjusted to their bodily changes into an Ohmes and an Ohmes-Raht, respectively; admittedly, the change from Cathay was smaller than the change from Suthay-Raht.

Tears threatened to fall from Lejule's eyes as he walked over and invited his children into a hug. "You forgive me?"

The Archmage's son hugged his father. "Of course. None can control the machinations of the Mad God, not even his kin."

Lejule looked at his daughter. "You know this one can't stay mad at you, Dad."

Finally, his gaze returned to Aela. "I know that I shouldn't make promises in a world that does not work like Nirn, but I am. I promise that, as soon as I can, I will find a way to bring us all home."

She crossed her arms. "Do you mean it?"

"Every word."

The "Huntress" turned away and tilted her head. "Then I forgive you, for now."

"'For now?'"

"Oh, I'm going to beat you black and blue, later, when we're safe. But we have to reach that horizon, first." She walked over and joined the family hug. "So, how do we do that?"

* * *

Despite acting as if she wasn't listening, Ruby fully heard the conversation the rest of her team was having, Weiss' final words reaching her ears and bringing a faint smile to her face. "It's our job to protect people. And whatever we want…has to come second."

At that moment, she caught movement down the road and brought Crescent Rose's scope up to see what it was. The eye that was looking through the scope widened. "Guys, Jasiir's coming back, and he's bringing company."

"What?"

Blake's hand inched toward Gambol Shroud. "Who?"

Ruby studied the Faunus professor and the people beside him for a few seconds. Seeing them interact brought up an old memory, which in turn brought a tear to her eye. "I…think they're his family."

Yang compacted Ember Celica. "Huh? He never said anything about a family in his lectures."

Weiss laid Myrtenaster back down next to her bedroll. "Yang, there was never a point when his family history was relevant to our lessons." She looked to Ruby. "What makes you say they're his family, though?"

"Well, there're a woman and two teenagers, and the whole group is walking this way while holding a conversation, much the way a family walking in a park would. And–" She was nearly half-blinded when the boy wearing strange robes suddenly flicked a barrage of lightning bolts at the beowolf she had forgotten about when she saw Jasiir. "Whoa!" She lowered Crescent Rose and rubbed her eye.

Yang was instantly by her side. "What is it, Rubes?"

"Jasiir's son can throw lightning! And I was zoomed in on him when he did so."

The blonde's eyes widened. "Okay. That's shockingly awesome!"

Blake groaned at the pun, but nodded. "That is impressive."

Weiss, however, remained silent, pondering.

"What gives, Ice Queen?"

"Nothing. I just think he has some explaining to do when he gets back. Such as, how did his family happen to get into the same part of the same city as us in the same night?"

No one had anything to say to that, and they were silent until the professor arrived. The first person following him was a woman who was wearing a set of armor that looked like it was made of a mix of scales and bones from its boots to its helmet. The pauldrons were tipped with large spikes that made it even more intimidating…and promised to stab anyone she rammed her shoulders into. Even so, she had long red hair flowing out from the bottom of said helmet, green eyes, and a set of painted green lines streaked across her face. She was tall and heavily-muscled; she looked bigger than Yang, although not quite as tall as Professor Goodwitch. A dagger that looked to be made from the same bony material was sheathed on her hip while a bow crafted from layered steel hung on her back. Unlike Jasiir, she was human.

Behind her was Jasiir's son, a cougar Faunus. He was a bit shorter and looked about Yang's age. The robes he was wearing were blue hooded with a white fur lining; there was a triangular section in front and in back that reached about down to his knees. He didn't seem to have a weapon on him, which meant that he fought in hand-to-hand enhanced with Aura and Semblance usage.

The last person to enter was a slightly older girl wearing the heaviest suit of armor any of Team RWBY had ever seen. She was a lion Faunus, and the armor was made of the same bone as the woman's, only the scaled portions were reduced to just the joints in order to allow for mobility. Everywhere else, with the exception of most of her face, was covered by heavy bone plates; said plates looked thick enough that bullets would just bounce off. The shoulder plates, like those of the woman's armor, were tipped with spikes. Hanging on her back was a hammer made of a blackish-green metal that was larger than Magnhild.

* * *

"Ladies, I would like to introduce you to my wife, son, and daughter, Aela, Ma'rahka, and Ma'isha. I have not been honest with you. Please, sit, as this will take some time. If, at any point, you have a question, memorize it and ask it when I am finished." Ruby remained where she was so that she could finish up her watch while, and the others sat down; Oobleck came down off his perch so as to join in. "To start, my name is not Jasiir Daytha. It is Lejule Wulfson. I do not hail from Atlas, or from anywhere on Remnant. I am from another world called Nirn where magic exists and mortals and gods can interact. One such god sent me here, ostensibly to fight in the Great War, but he miscalculated by eighty years, which is why I am here now instead of then." He continued his explanation for the better part of an hour, during which time Ruby's watch ended and she swapped out with Yang. Jasiir, now Lejule again, told of his adventures in a condensed and sanitized form, leaving out the fact that he, Aela, and Ma'isha were werewolves, as he figured that would not bode well with the team of monster hunters. He ended by saying, "The only ones on Remnant who know are either in this room or are Glynda, Ozpin, or General Ironwood. I must ask that it remains so. Swear to me that you will keep this to yourselves, please." They all swore to do so. "Thank you."

Ruby raised her hand. "Um, Professor?"

It was the appropriate time for questions. "Yes, Ruby?"

"You mentioned souls, but no Aura. Does that mean–?"

Aela nodded. "Yes. We of Nirn don't know what this 'Aura' is. What is it?"

Lejule looked toward his wife. "As a rough analogy, think of Aura as a 100%-strength Shield spell that is permanently active, but each hit you take drains your magicka. When your magicka depletes, the Shield fails, and you are vulnerable to being wounded." When his family nodded in understanding, he returned his attention to the girls and Oobleck. "On that subject, I have a favor to ask."

The Doctor held up his hands. "I am afraid I do not want to get involved with that."

The Nord's brow creased. "With what?"

"Unlocking your Auras. The weapons here are overall more powerful than what we encountered in Skyrim, and Aura provides a strong defense against them. However, I do not think my Aura is strong enough to unlock the Auras of all three of you, so I would like some help with that."

Ruby immediately stood up. "We'll help." She looked at her teammates. "Won't we?"

Yang stood from her station on watch and walked over. "Sure. Never unlocked someone's Aura before. Should be interesting."

Weiss joined her. "If it ensures that they won't slow us down, then I should help."

Ruby's jaw dropped at her partner's words. "Weiss! Why are you being mean?"

The heiress slouched in disbelief. "I was being facetious."

"Um…"

"She was joking, Ruby."

"Oh."

Lejule held up his hand to forestall any other comments. "I am glad that you volunteered, Weiss and Yang, for I believe you two are the best candidates to unlock my children's Auras, Weiss for Ma'rahka and Yang for Ma'isha, due to your meshing personalities."

"Makes sense to me. Blake, could you take over watch?"

The black-haired Faunus nodded. "Sure."

The Khajiit professor stood and turned to Aela, while their children paired off with the girls who would unlock their respective Auras. "I need you to relax, close your eyes, and concentrate on your soul. This will feel…different from anything we've experienced, before."

She nodded. "I trust you, my love."

As one, Lejule and the two students recited, "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and, by my shoulder, protect thee." Similarly to when Glynda had unlocked his Aura, Lejule's dragon led Aela's wolf into a dancing hunt through a shifting, formless void.

When they were done, Lejule felt the same fatigue that he had seen in Glynda and studied his wife. Her Aura was green streaked with red. He looked toward his kids.

Ma'isha was shrouded in reddish-gold light and flexing her muscles, no doubt already feeling the new strength flooding her limbs.

Ma'rahka, on the other hand, was surrounded by a blue radiance, and he was speaking with Weiss about weaving his magic with her Glyphs. Lejule blinked his eyes at that, as he had never thought of mixing his magic into someone's Semblance; then again, his son was a purer mage than him.

Then he noticed that Yang had sat down. "Are you alright?"

The blonde nodded. "Yeah. Just a little tired from killing monsters all day and unlocking an Aura. They never tell you the strain it puts on your Aura to unlock another's."

Immediately, Ma'isha reached into one of her belt pouches and withdrew a familiar green bottle. "Here." She handed it to the brawler.

"What is it?"

"A restoration potion. Specifically one to restore your stamina. Won't completely banish your need for sleep, but it can certainly take a chunk out of it."

Lejule chuckled in understanding. "I once fought for three days straight without sleep thanks to stamina potions."

Yang's eyebrows raced for her hairline. "Sounds really useful." She accepted the bottle and took a swig…and then she sputtered and coughed. "What the heck is this?!"

He grabbed the bottle and sniffed it. "Ah. Apologies. This one was made with netch jelly and sabre cat eye. I'll admit that it wasn't the best choice for a first-timer. Don't worry. Most potions don't taste good, and a frequent user just gets used to the taste."

"Riiight."

Blake then spoke up, wrenching away everyone's attention. "Hey, did anyone see where Ruby went?"

Lejule looked around and saw that the Faunus was right; Team RWBY's leader was nowhere to be found. He lifted his nose to the air and sniffed, catching her scent. "This way."

Oobleck was instantly beside him. "Grab your weapons. Your leader may be in trouble."

* * *

The group ran into Zwei on the way, and he led them the remaining distance. Yang ran ahead, so she was the first to spot the first sign of Ruby: Crescent Rose, lying in its compact form next to some cracked pavement. "Ruby's scythe!"

Weiss saw that the "crack" was actually the edge of a massive hole. "Do you think she fell?"

Oobleck rushed up to the edge and looked every which way but down. "'Fell?'"

"Down there."

"Oh my." He began pacing. "Of course! Of course, of course, of course!" Blake asked what it was he had figured out. "How could I have been so stupid?!"

Yang was becoming worried. "Doctor Oobleck, what's wrong?"

He zipped up to her, then to the others in the group as he explained. "Mountain Glen. Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm. Previously home to thousands of people, _working_ people, commuting to the city, the main city. Developed a subway system to the inner city. Grimm attacks increase. Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter. City evacuates into metro tunnels, and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests _and deep caves!_ "

Yang was still clueless. "Doc, what are you saying?"

"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network. We're looking for an _underground_ crime network!"

Aela tilted her head. "The criminals you're looking for are based out of a cave?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no. Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense and unique transportation. The city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens from the new territory into the main kingdom. Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start. As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took up shelter _beneath_ the city, in the massive caves they had cleared out for the subway, and they had cut themselves off from the surface."

Lejule's eyes widened. "An underground city." He looked toward his family. "Like the Dwemer."

Oobleck nodded. "In a manner of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until…an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern…filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb."

Ma'rahka spread his arms. "If your teammate is down there…" Steams of electricity wrapped around his hands. "We need to follow her."

Oobleck nodded. "Agreed. It will take some time to find a safe way down, however."

The boy laughed. "No need." A new type of energy flowed from his arms. "Anyone ever wanted to fly?"

Lejule shook his head. "A slow-fall spell would be more efficient, in this situation."

His son slapped his palm against his forehead. "Right. Of course." He pooled a third type of energy in his hands. "Express elevator, going down." He cast the spell, which washed over everyone present, and leaped into the hole, falling at a slower-than-normal speed.

He was quickly followed by the other three Nirn natives, but the Remnant natives were a little more hesitant. Weiss exchanged looks with the others. "Do you think it's safe?"

Oobleck cupped his chin. "Unsure. Lejule and his family certainly seem to think so." He hopped up and came down slowly. "The 'spell' seems to work."

"Seeing it work is enough for me." Yang leapt down into the dark.

The rest of Team RWBY sighed, Weiss putting her palm to her forehead. "Well, I guess we should make sure she isn't getting into trouble." She jumped over the edge, followed by Blake and Oobleck.

When they arrived, they saw that Lejule, his family, and Yang had already eliminated a pair of White Fang soldiers, one of whom was scorched so badly that it was clear he would never get up again. Ma'rahka was facing a door in the rock face and was pooling magic in his hands, but Lejule laid a hand on his shoulder. "I have something a little more dramatic to use." He stepped forward, cleared his throat, and bellowed. " **GOL!** "

* * *

A fifteen-foot-diameter section of the stone actually trembled, cracked, and then exploded inward. Ma'isha gestured toward the hole with her hammer. "Let's rescue your leader like the big damn heroes we are."

The night had just started to turn around for Roman Torchwick: One of his long-time rivals, Little Red, had been captured by two of the idiotic mutts from the White Fang. Then a wall somewhere in the cavern had exploded, and the girl ran off. A group of Huntsman and Huntresses, both in-training and otherwise, were utterly demolishing the opposition between them and Red.

"Somebody kill her!" Roman shouted as he took aim with Melodic Cudgel. He and several Fang soldiers opened fire, only for the shots to hit some kind of barrier that the youngest Huntsman was creating. Torchwick's frustration threatened to bend his weapon in half. He turned to the Faunus next to him. "Attach this car and spread the word. We're starting the train."

"But we're not finished–"

Roman didn't let him complete his objection. Jamming Melodic Cudgel's barrel into the man's chin, he growled, "Do it, or _you're_ finished." He walked down to the train's engine.

* * *

"Ruby!" Yang cried in joy as she caught her sister in a spinning hug.

Weiss came around to Yang's side when the latter stopped spinning. "Are you okay?"

Ruby struggled out of her sister's grasp and dusted herself off. "I'm fine, I'm FINE! But, listen. Torchwick's got all kinds of weapons and robots down there." She gestured toward the train.

Blake lifted Crescent Rose from where she had hooked it onto her belt. "What?" She handed the weapon to its rightful owner.

"Androids, mechs, they're all loaded up on the train cars!"

Oobleck waved off her concern. "Ah, that's ridiculous. These tunnels are sealed. The tracks lead to a dead end."

"Where is that 'end,' exactly?" Lejule asked.

Before another word could be said, the intercom speaker squawked with Roman's voice. "Get to your places, we are leaving now!" The sounds of clanking gears, shifting machinery, and a train whistle filled the caves.

Yang berated the Doctor with the obvious. "Well, it sounds like they're going _somewhere_!"

"We need back-up." Ruby pulled out her scroll. "Let me call Jaune." The device beeped. "I can't get through!"

"Then we are doing this, ourselves." Aela readied her bow.

Weiss raised Myrtenaster. "So, what's the plan?"

Oobleck looked down the tunnel. "I believe there's only one thing we can do."

Ruby caught on and unfolded her scythe. "We're stopping that train!"

* * *

It took some time and distance to reach the "train," as Team RWBY and Doctor Oobleck called it, but the two magic-wielding warriors of the Wulfson family were able to hurry them along.

As Lejule was helping Ruby, the last of their group, onto the last "car," he heard a White Fang soldier notice their arrival.

Oobleck was quick to knock the man out, but their presence had been revealed."

When their group reached the top, the Doctor began handing out orders. "Hurry children, we must get to the front and stop this train."

Weiss, evidently searching for a short-cut, had lifted up one of the hatches that lined the top of each car. "Uh…Professor?"

He leaned in close. " _Doctor_."

"What's that?" She pointed to a grey box with handles and blue and red parts.

"That my dear…" He knelt down. "Appears to be a bomb."

Team RWBY jumped back. Ma'isha raised Volendrung. "Can we smash it?"

"If we want it to blow up in our faces and destroy us in return, yes."

Ruby was looking further down the train. "We've got baddies!"

Sure enough, several cars down, a large number of White Fang soldiers were climbing to the top of the train.

Oobleck followed her gaze. "Well, I didn't expect them to go–" The bomb emitted a whirring whine followed by some beeps. "–easy on us." He stood up. "Time to go!" When everyone else hopped over to the next car, he leaned in close to Blake. "Blake! Detach the caboose! It'll kill us all!"

"On it!" She hopped down between the cars. Then her voice floated up a moment later, full of surprise. "It decoupled itself!"

Oobleck and then Yang leaned over the edge to confirm for themselves. "What?"

"I guess he really doesn't want us on this train."

When the car had drifted quite some distance away, it exploded, bits of it smashing into the roof of the tunnel. As dust and rock from the roof followed the wreckage back down, the Doctor noted, "That's not good."

Ruby, meanwhile, had decided to check the central hatch on the car they had jumped to. "Uhh…neither is this!"

Blake had just finished climbing up to the top. "Another bomb?!" She leaned forward as if to say, _"Are you kidding me?"_

Oobleck ran ahead to the next car and checked its central hatch. "No, no, no…" Unfortunately, his suspicion was confirmed. "They ALL have bombs!"

Lejule growled, which then led to a roar. "That's it! The rest of you, get as close to the front as you can. I will stop this train."

Ruby looked at him. "Um, how?"

He smirked. "That will remain one of the secrets I keep. When you hear a second howl, get inside the nearest car and brace for a sudden stop."

Weiss looked ahead at the approaching White Fang. "How are you going to get past all of them?"

Her answer came as he concentrated and let the beast free for the first time here on Remnant. Beneath his armor, his form shifted and expanded; a black-furred muzzle pushed out of his face; his legs shifted into a digitigrade form while his feet rounded out and became tipped with black claws; his arms bulked out and lengthened to the size of his pre-transformation legs, and his hands similarly enlarged while claws half the size of Myrtenaster's blade extended from each finger; a bushy black tail sprouted from his rear end. When the shift was finished, the werewolf opened his amber eyes and howled in pure relief at being released.

Aela walked up to him, kissed his muzzle, and whispered, "Good hunting."

With a toothy grin as only a lupine face could produce, Lejule charged forward. The White Fang's advance had stopped, the scent of fear wafting off of them thickly enough to choke on. He paid them no mind as his several-hundred-pound-bulk barreled into and through the terrorists. He only distantly noted the sweet, wet crack of shattering bone as some of them were thrown off the train with depleted Auras.

The first real challenge was ahead. More of those war machines that Torchwick had stolen – Paladins, as the news article had called it – had been powered up and were approaching him. Trusting in his Aura and his Hircine-hardened hide, he shrugged off their weapons and closed the distance. He leapt into the air, claws first, at the nearest one. Blessed by Hircine to be sharper than a Daedric blade, the talons scythed through the machines leg as though it were parchment. A follow-up backhand threw his foe off the side to be crushed by its own momentum.

When he turned his attention to the next, a fireball shot past and collided with the Paladin with enough force to throw it off the train. He stopped and stared when the fireball dissipated to reveal Ruby and Yang's dog, Zwei. After a moment, all he could muster was, "Huh. I guess you can fight." And then he was off, again.

He reached the car the Paladins had been stored, which was more of a platform with wheels, and set to work destroying them so they couldn't be used against his family, Team RWBY, or Doctor Oobleck. At that time, the power of his lycanthropy ran dry, so he shifted tactics. " **MUL QAH DIIV**!" His Aura flared as he channeled his dragon's power into it, including two functional wings. With those, he flew the rest of the way and matched speed with the train.

His objective right in front of him, he reached deep into his soul for a Shout that he rarely used. Even so, it had somehow become iconic of his being the Dovahkiin, probably because of it being the first Shout he had learned. Raw energy welled within him until it could no longer be contained and pushed its way out of his jaws. " **FUS RO DAH!** "

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: We're entering the final stretch of Volume Two.**

 **This may surprise you, but I actually have found incredibly little use for Unrelenting Force in my play-throughs of Skyrim. My preferred Shout is Fire Breath thanks to its direct-damage capability; that is, when I use Shouts, at all.**

 **EDIT: I can't believe no one noticed (me included) that I never really finished this chapter, as I left out a full section of Oobleck's lesson about Mountain Glenn's downfall.**


	9. Chapter 9

The effects were immediate and devastating. A wall of force, strong enough to throw a giant around as though it were a child's toy, slammed into the nose of the train. The front of the vehicle was wrenched to a halt, crumpling under the inertia of the cars behind it. The twisted wreckage acted as a roadblock, causing the following cars to twist, turn, and tumble until there was no way for the train to reach its intended destination.

Surveying the destruction, Lejule allowed himself a pang of remorse for the Faunus whose lives had been taken by his actions, and then he clambered onto the scrap heap to search for his family and friends. The first few cars were crushed beyond recognition; when he reached the first relatively intact car, he Shouted, quietly. " **Las Yah Nir.** " Unfortunately, there was no one alive in that car.

He repeated this process for several more cars, finding only White Fang members both alive and dead. Then he reached the highest point of the ruined pile of train parts and the color drained from his face. As far as he could see down the tunnel, utter hordes of Grimm were converging on the back of the train. He had to hurry.

A familiar, but unexpected, scent reached his nose. He looked down and saw a girl wearing white and brown clothes with pink, white, and brown hair frantically trying to open the top hatch of one of the toppled cars. Lejule quietly hopped down to her position. "Which is the disguise, and which is the real you, Napoli?"

She leapt back, her wide eyes flashing both white as she noticed he was there. She deflected his question with the first words he heard her truly speak. "My friend, father figure." She pointed to the hatch. "In there."

The Khajiit glared at her for a moment before relenting, knowing that he would regret his decision later. He drew the Claw of Akatosh and brought it down against all four edges of the hatch, the ebony blade easily carving through the steel. "Get him and go, but I would like to have a word with you later. You know where my office is." He continued on.

Two cars further down, he finally found his friends. Weiss was unconscious, having apparently been thrown against one of the walls due to not bracing properly; Ma'rahka was tending to her. The door at the end in front of the group was dented almost to the point of popping out of its frame from where a massive White Fang soldier had likewise been thrown. Everyone else was battered and bruised, but alive and conscious. Aela stormed up to him. "Why didn't you howl like you said you were going to?"

"I took too long and, because it wasn't fed, the beast receded."

"Hmph. Figures."

"Uh, guys?" The husband and wife looked at Ruby. "What do we do next?"

"We have to get out of here. An army of Grimm is on its way, and not even the eight of us together can kill them all."

A groggy "Nine." signaled Weiss's reawakening.

"Apologies. But even nine of us are not enough to destroy all of the Grimm I saw."

Oobleck stood up. "So, what do you suggest?"

Lejule looked at his son. "Ma'rahka. Now would be the time for that levitation spell."

The young man grinned as he channeled and formed the requisite magicka in his hands.

* * *

Weiss had felt a lot of sensations in her life, but she had to admit that this was new. After a short lesson in how to move under the effects of the "levitation" spell, Lejule had led them outside and into the air, mostly out of reach of the Grimm.

"Professor, are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"It is our only option. The dremora and atronachs will not last forever."

Ah, yes. The strange creatures that Lejule and his son had summoned to distract the Grimm horde back at the train. Two of them had looked like Faunus of some sort wearing bulky and spiky black armor with red highlights and their skin matched; they had seemed to not only be aware of their role, but excited for it. The other two appeared to be synthetics made of rock and fire. Weiss still wasn't sure what to make of the four, but she didn't have the luxury of questioning that right now. She looked back at her feet, stepping on a platform made of three pulsating rings of magenta-colored energy. "How long will this last?"

It was Ma'rahka who answered. "About five more minutes before I need to cast the spell again."

"And, if you don't?"

"We fall."

Weiss gulped. Ruby drifted over to her and looped an arm over her shoulders. "It's okay, Weiss. I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

The heiress looked down at the horde of Grimm below them. "That does not exactly inspire confidence."

"Quiet. No need to attract undue attention." Lejule stopped for a second before gathering energy in his hands. He thrust his arms toward the ground and another pair of creatures appeared.

If Weiss remembered the terminology correctly, they were "dremora." Despite her distance from the floor of the tunnel, she distinctly heard one of them yell, "Raahh! A challenger is near!" Then again, they both had the same voice, so it might have been both of them in unison.

Lejule pointed back toward the train and the summoned beings began marching that way, cutting down any Grimm in their path and ignoring the majority of the attacks directed against them.

The rest of the walk was completed without incident; Ma'rahka periodically recast the group levitation spell, and they exited the tunnel through the nearest hole that had been made by the exploding train cars. Yang spoke up for the first time since they had left the train. "Well, that was a bit less climactic than I thought it would be."

Blake tilted her head as she looked at her partner. "Yang, we stopped Torchwick's plan dead in its tracks." Then she facepalmed as Yang's snickering made her realize the pun she had made.

"Not bad, Blake. There's hope for you, yet. But, anyway, what I meant was that there was no big battle of us trying to stop the train, enemies trying to stop us but instead slowing us down every step of the way. No big battle against the Grimm–" The screeching of Nevermores cut her off. "I really need to stop while I'm ahead."

The group turned and spotted three of the Grimm birds flying toward them. Lejule sheathed his sword and slung his shield onto his back. "Ma'rahka, you and I will take the one on the left. Aela, you and the others strike the one on the right."

Ruby noted his count was off. "Um, that still leaves the one in the middle."

The professor smiled. "That will be taken care of by a friend of mine." He looked at the ground and Shouted. " **DUR-NEHVIIR!** "

A wave of energy splashed across the grass a few dozen feet in front of them, forming what looked like a portal of some kind. Out of it climbed the most bizarre and awe-inspiring creature anyone on Remnant had ever seen. First, a giant leathery wing emerged and gripped the edge of the portal, followed by a second. After them came a large, triangular head as large as an Ursa with four great, sweeping horns extending from the back of the being's skull. Behind that was a long, scaled neck as thick as King Taijitu's body, which led into the creature's body. Thick, talon-tipped, scaly legs reached out and grabbed the rim of the portal to pull the monster fully into the world. This revealed the creature's back, which was covered in long, thick spines. Finally, a long tail tipped with a wide, curved blade of bone slithered into view and the portal closed. Weiss guessed that the creature would have looked rather majestic in life, but the amount of its flesh that was clearly rotting away suggested that this thing had been, somehow, brought back from whatever grave it had been stuffed in who knew how many years ago. Even so, there was only one beast whose description even came close to matching what had just been summoned by Lejule: a dragon.

The dragon looked at their professor and, to the shock of Team RWBY and Doctor Oobleck, _spoke_. "Qahnaarin. It has been too long." It – no, _he_ – looked up and sniffed the air through its bony nostrils. "This is not Keizaal; in fact, it is nowhere I recognize. Where are we?" He noticed the Remnant natives. "And who are your fahdon?"

The cat walked up to the dragon. "I will tell you, later, old friend. For now, we have foes to vanquish." He nodded in the direction of the Nevermores.

The dragon followed his gaze. "Geh. I see." It extended its tattered wings, flapped twice, and took to the skies.

Lejule turned around and noticed the looks he was being given. "An explanation for a later time. For now, prepare yourselves." He wove his hands through the air and pulled electrical energy into a big ball he cradled in his palms, the movements matched perfectly by his son.

Weiss prepared her glyphs to launch a Dust barrage at the incoming birds.

Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle form and took aim at her assigned target.

Blake folded Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and lined up its sights with her eyes.

Yang extended Ember Celica into their combat form and raised her fists. "Aim for the eyes or the open mouth. Those are the weak spots."

Aela nocked an arrow on the string of her bow and drew it back.

Ma'isha pulled a crossbow out of her satchel, loaded a bronze bolt that coursed with a blue-white energy, and brought the weapon's stock to her shoulder.

Her mother noted an error in her form. "You're aiming too low. Bring the front up a bit."

The cat-girl squeezed her eyes shut and followed Aela's order. "Right."

Oobleck raised his thermos, which telescoped out into its flamethrower configuration.

The dragon bared his claws and tore into the central Nevermore, but the other two kept coming.

Aela drew her bowstring further back. "Get ready. Lejule?"

"Fire when I cast." He stared intently at the Nevermore he was targeting. "Now." He and Ma'rahka thrust their hands forward, and twin streams of lightning raced toward the giant Grimm. The beams ravenously tore at the bone mask, rending it and devouring the black flesh behind. The bird screamed in pain for a few seconds, and then it began to disintegrate from the head down. This was not the evaporating that Grimm corpses normally underwent; instead, the lightning seemed to burn the monster to ash.

However, the others had not been idle while the two magic-users destroyed one of the Nevermores. The other was met with an inundation of bullets, arrows, and Dust projectiles. From how badly she had aimed earlier, Ma'isha's crossbow bolt skittered off the bird's face-plate. She redeemed herself with her second bolt; one of Aela's arrows and some of Ruby and Yang's bullets pierced one of the beast's eyes, causing it to roar in pain, and the Khajiit girl took the opportunity to put a bolt down its throat. When it hit the inner flesh, the missile exploded in a flash of ice, strangling its cry. Combined fire from Weiss and Doctor Oobleck battered the fiend's head every which way while Blake's bullets put out another of its eyes.

Disoriented and half-blind, the Nevermore pulled out of its dive and tried to flee. However, its flight path brought it within range of the defensive guns atop the walls of Vale. Cannon shells flew through the air and ripped the bird to shreds.

* * *

Lejule looked for the last of the Grimm, only to see Durnehviir grab each wing of the injured abomination in his talons and tear it in half. He turned toward the others. "Is anyone injured?" When they all answered that they were all right, he continued, "Doctor Oobleck, would you say that our mission is complete?"

The green-haired man cupped his chin in thought for a moment. "I would say 'no,' as the Grimm in that tunnel might still need to be eradicated, but that many Grimm might be too much for a team of professional Huntsmen. We should return and gather reinforcements to take care of the problem."

The eldest Khajiit nodded. "Then, in that case, it is well past time we returned home." He turned his gaze to Aela and their children. "Our temporary home, in the case of my family."

* * *

When they all reached Beacon, having encountered and slaughtered a few Grimm along the way, Team RWBY stopped and looked back the way they had come, while Oobleck, Lejule, and the latter's family continued on to file their report. Yang was the first to speak. "Well, we did it."

Blake nodded. "We did it."

Weiss chimed in, half-joking, half-serious. "If we don't get extra-credit for that, I'm going to be seriously disappointed."

Yang patted her shoulder. "We **did** stop an invasion of Vale before it could start, so we might."

Ruby added her two cents. "But we didn't solve everything. A lot of Faunus were hurt, even killed, and we still don't know why they tried to do that."

Weiss tried to comfort her partner. "Well, not every story has a neat and tidy ending."

Blake put in her opinion on the situation. "We may not have all the answers, but there are a lot of dangerous people who won't be able to hurt other people, anymore. And I think that's something we can be proud of."

The crimsonette hung her head. "But Torchwick's still out there, and I wish those people we stopped were in jail rather than dead."

Weiss tilted her head. "How do you figure that Torchwick escaped?"

* * *

Neo lifted the unconscious body of Roman Torchwick onto her shoulder. "I've got you," she whispered as she grabbed his hat and cane and teleported away from the train to a White Fang hideout.

* * *

"Just a feeling. That, and, that's how it works in the comic books. The heroes stop the villain's plan, and he flees to make a new one."

Yang rubbed her sister's head. "Come on, you've been reading too many of those. Besides, in those comics, the villain never succeeds."

Ruby shimmied out of the brawler's affections and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. If anyone tries anything like this again, we'll be there to stop them!"

That was when exhaustion finally caught up to the team blonde, and she lay down, Zwei flopping onto his back beside her. "Yay…teamwork, camaraderie, go guys, go team. Alright, good job…" Her words slurred more and more the closer she got to the end of the sentences. She shook herself back awake and propped herself up on her elbows. "So, what now?"

Weiss, ever the analytical one, replied, "I'd suggest training for the tournament, but, between the White Fang and the Grimm, I think we have that covered at this point."

Blake waved her hand in askance. "So, that means…?"

Ruby gave her answer in an uncertain tone. "Uh, time for bed?"

There were no arguments among her team, Yang going so far as to say, "I'm going to sleep forever." The victorious, yet exhausted, Huntresses-in-training walked to their dorm room feeling ready to take on the world, after a good sleep.

They had no idea what was to come.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: With this, this story's version of Volume 2 of RWBY comes to a close. There will be one more chapter to cover the time between Volumes before we go into the events of Volume 3.**

* * *

 **A little preview of what's to come:**

 **Port's voice boomed over the stadium's loudspeakers. "Welcome, one and all, to the 40th Biannual Vytal Festival Tournament. Our first match is about to get underway: Team PLTM of Shade versus Team MOON of Beacon!"**


	10. Chapter 10

Two days had passed since the assault on the White Fang. The Atlesian military had gone into the tunnels to secure the wreck of the train, as well as capture any surviving Fangs. The Grimm in the train tunnel had been eradicated, and a few White Fang were taken into custody. Roman Torchwick was not among them, nor was his corpse discovered anywhere. Although Lejule had a suspicion of what had happened to the villain, he did not voice it.

Team RWBY had been given the rest of the week off for rest; aside from large amounts of snoring, they hadn't been heard from since returning to their dorm.

With the help of Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood, Lejule was getting his family settled in Vale. Not for the first time, the dragonborn wondered why the wizened headmaster was helping him so readily while asking for so little in return. However, that thought was put aside while he spent time with Aela, Ma'isha, and Ma'rahka and helped inform them of this world.

Unfortunately, Lejule's research into his and his family's arrival on Remnant painted a conclusion he did not want to see: Only divine intervention would allow his family to return to Nirn; that or find someone with a Semblance that allowed them to travel between words, something that had never been documented. Even the vaunted power of a dovahkiin would not reach that level.

His family was understandably upset when he delivered the news. Still, they had agreed that this was a place where a life could be built well enough. Lejule spoke with Ozpin about it, and the Headmaster had agreed to have his children attend Beacon; they would be starting in the next school year.

* * *

Today, he was walking around the campus, eyes half-lidded and taking deep breaths through his nose, trying to track the infiltrator's scent. So far, the trail had led to the ballroom, which was still being cleaned; that had resulted in the near-obliteration of her path. Fortunately, it seemed that she had decided to dance with someone else to blend in with the crowd. That left her scent intermingled with her partner's, and granted a second scent to follow.

Lejule's eyes widened slightly and he growled as he recognized the second scent: Mercury's. _I knew he there was something off about him._ Remembering that Mercury claimed to be from Haven, he headed to the foreign students' dormitory. His hunch proved correct when the intruder's scent grew stronger and stronger the closer he came.

Several minutes later, he arrived at the room allotted to Haven's Team CMSN. A moment of listening and sniffing, he determined that three of the four members of the team were in the room, including the infiltrator. The Khajiit conjured a bound sword, raised his foot, and kicked the door down.

In an instant, his mind took in the details; the room wasn't much different from any other dorm room with four beds, two desks, a few bookshelves, and an attached bathroom. Mercury and Emerald were standing up from where they had been sitting on their beds, while the infiltrator was standing next to the doorway.

Lejule's sword was immediately at the woman's throat. "It is a pleasure to meet you, formally, Cinder Fall."

†††

It took all of her willpower for Cinder to not snap at the current situation. The Faunus she had mortally wounded, Jasiir Daytha, had somehow tracked her down and was now holding a sword made of energy to her throat. She settled for glaring at him and lying to stall for time. "Have we met?"

The cat glanced at Emerald and Mercury. "Try to cause trouble, I dare you." He returned his gaze to Cinder. "All of you. I know who you are and what you are capable of. If you fight, you will lose. Neat trick with that glass blade, though."

"'Glass blade?' I fight with fire and martial arts."

"Playing ignorant and unintelligent will not excuse your actions. I never forget a scent."

Realizing that he would not be leaving, Cinder tried a new tactic. "Fine, you have outplayed me. I surrender."

His brow creased. "You three will be coming with me to be handed over to the justice system to be prosecuted for espionage and attempted murder."

"No." Only Cinder's iron will kept her from crumbling under Jasiir's withering glare. She nodded toward Mercury and Emerald. "They know nothing of my purpose here." She met each of their eyes, internally smiling at how well they feigned looks of confusion and shock. "I lied to both of you. We are not here for the Tournament. I needed to impersonate a student to get into Beacon to pursue my plans. For that, I needed to be part of a team, and I was able to dupe you two saps into portraying my teammates, perfectly." Betrayal was added into the mix of expressions. She returned her gaze to Professor Daytha. "They were recruited off the street on the promise that I would take care of them. I'm still not sure I would have followed through on that 'promise.' Take me, but leave them alone. They're innocent."

The Faunus still wasn't convinced. "Is what she says true?"

Emerald answered first. "I grew up on the streets, stealing scraps to survive."

Mercury was next. "My dad tried to kill me. Cinder saved my life."

There was complete silence excepting four sets of breathing. Finally, Jasiir visibly, barely, relaxed. "Very well then. Come with me, Cinder. You two, stay put." He slowly backed out of the room, only moving when Cinder did; he'd obviously learned from their first encounter.

In the one instant where he could not see her eyes, she looked to her associates and winked. She'd figure out some way to benefit from this turn of events; Roman was still out there to cause mischief and unrest, while the White Fang was still loyal to Adam, who was loyal to her. For now, she followed the cat's directions.

* * *

The next day, Lejule was in his office, reviewing his students' combat performance. The Vytal Festival that had been talked about by so many students and teachers was only a few weeks away. The centerpiece of the event would be a grand tournament involving thirty two teams from the various Kingdoms, eight per Kingdom, and Professor Daytha wanted each and every one of his students to be able to fight to the fullest of their potential.

A timid knocking at the door drew his attention. "Enter." The door swung slowly open to reveal a familiar green-eyed girl with long black pigtails. Lejule gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Please, shut the door behind you and have a seat."

"Yes, sir." She sat down and twiddled her fingers. "I–"

He cut her off by, for the second time, asking, "Which is the disguise, and which is the real you, Napoli?"

Her eyes changed to the shocked white, she opened her mouth to speak, and then she hung her head. Starting from her shoes, a ripple of energy flowed over her form, changing the shoes and black stockings into white knee-high boots. The maid outfit became a thigh-length white coat, and her black pigtails became a loose mane of pink and brown, with a white stripe in the middle. When she met his eyes again, hers had again changed: The right eye was pink, while the left eye was brown. "This is me. My name isn't Napoli; it's Neopolitan. I work for Roman Torchwick as his personal bodyguard and assassin."

"And you fear that your daughter will hate you for that."

She sat staff-straight. "What? Where did that come from?"

"I can scent the relation between two individuals, whether they are mere acquaintances or something more. You and Oreonna are mother and daughter."

Neo looked down at her knees. "Yes."

"Does she know you're here?"

"No."

"Would you like to see her?"

Her eyes welled up with tears. "I can't."

"Why not?"

The tears flowed. "I don't want her to see the monster I've become."

"'Monster?' My dear, a monster wouldn't care this much about anyone. A monster wouldn't feel anything, much less remorse for what they have done."

"But I've murdered people in cold blood and not cared."

"So have I."

"What?"

Lejule sighed. He hadn't meant for that to slip out. "There was an orphanage owner, Grelod. One of the orphans ran away and tried to contact a group of assassins to kill her. The boy mistook me for a member of that group, and gave me the job. I traveled to the orphanage and killed her. I'm not entirely proud of what I did, but I have no regrets about it."

"I see."

"Look. I can make no promises about Oreonna's reaction, but she could use her mother. Tukson was murdered recently. She has no one at the moment." He turned to the side and looked toward the office window. "Everyone should have their parents in their lives." He picked up a pen and a sheet of paper. "This is her room. At least consider what I have said."

* * *

That night, Jaune and Pyrrha were, as usual, practice-dueling on the dorm roof. He had been improving by leaps and bounds ever since Jasiir had joined in on Jaune's tutelage. Speaking of leaps and bounds, Jaune caught Milo in the crook of Crocea Mors, just as he had the night Pyrrha had asked him to the dance. Also just like that night, he left his stance wide open and unbalanced.

She twisted out of the lock and scythed her leg toward his ankles. This time, however, he hopped over her leg, and then he leapt at her in the span of half a second. Unprepared for his charge, Pyrrha was bowled over, forced onto her back with Jaune on top of her. Being this close, she could feel his warm breath washing over her face and neck and his heartbeat pulsing through his chest. Then she felt the heat rising in her reddening cheeks when she realized that it wasn't his pounding heartbeat she was feeling; it was her own.

His victorious smile dissolved into a confused frown at her change in expression. Then it transformed into pure shock when Pyrrha reached up, grabbed the back of his head, and pulled him into a kiss. Jaune went stiff for a moment before melting into her grip and returning the kiss. When it ended, he pushed himself up. "I love you, Pyrrha Nikos."

"And I love you…" She trailed off as she looked into his eyes. They weren't their usual get-lost-in-them-deep blue; they seemed to be the color of molten gold and were more reptilian in appearance. "Jaune?"

"What?"

"Are you…feeling alright?"

"Never better. Pyrrha, what is it?"

"Your eyes."

That was when they were reminded that Professor Daytha was there observing them, as he usually did, by him walking up to the blonde knight, grabbing his chin, and studying his eyes. Well, "studying" wasn't the right term, for it seemed Jasiir needed only a glimpse before he found something.

The Faunus' eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he stumbled backward and fell on his behind. "By the Nine!"

"Professor?" Pyrrha wasn't sure if it was Jaune who spoke, or her.

Jasiir visibly took a moment to compose himself. "We'll head down to your dorm room; the rest of your team will need to know this, and I would rather not have anyone eavesdrop."

Jaune unsteadily stood and nodded. "O-kay. Let's go, Pyrrha."

When they arrived at JNPR's room, they made sure Ren and Nora were the only ones listening, and Pyrrha turned to Professor Daytha. "What is going on with Jaune?"

He took a deep breath. "Tell me, what do you know of fairy tales and legends?"

The members of Team JNPR glanced at each other in uncertainty, but played along. Jaune spoke first. "They're stories passed down the generations."

Nora chimed in. "Stories of awesome things like magic and monsters and the heroes who fight them."

Pyrrha continued. "Usually the events of the stories are fantastical representations of what the storyteller wants the listener to learn."

Ren finished. "The stories sometimes have a grain of truth, but are almost always fiction."

Jasiir lifted his head, which had been bowed after he had asked his question. "That was what I needed to hear. There are some legends that are true, but the truth has faded from the minds of everyone."

Pyrrha's felt that her voice trembled. "What does this have to do with Jaune?"

The Faunus sighed. "What I am about to tell you, I have told to very few living souls. One legend from my homeland is that of the dragonborn. Millennia ago, dragons once roamed the skies of the world. To prevent them from ruling over or destroying humans or Faunus, the chief of the gods, Akatosh, who was also the father of the dragons, created the dragonborn: mortals born with the immortal blood and soul of dragons. They would wield power far beyond anything else on the planet, allowing them to act as a natural predator of dragons who wished ill against the world and its inhabitants." His gaze moved to Jaune. "You, Jaune Arc, are the newest to wield this power. One of only two in the world."

"'Two?' Who is the other?"

"Me. I will teach you what I can, but we will have to travel to rather remote areas outside Vale in order to train."

"Why?"

"Because the power of the dragons is loud and destructive."

Ren spoke up. "If we cannot help Jaune with these abilities, why tell us? Beyond needing to adjust our combat strategy."

Jasiir sighed, again. "I need you three to keep him grounded as much as you can now that his dragon-blood has been unleashed. Dragons have an instinct to dominate the world around them; due to wielding the soul of a dragon, dragonborn have much of that same instinct, and some are known to have been subsumed by that instinct. Such a being is a very terrible foe."

* * *

Lejule stepped out of Team JNPR's room, his head spinning. The discovery of a Remnant-born dovahkiin brought about a horde of other questions. Foremost among them was what else from Nirn was paralleled here? Magic? He already knew the Nine Divines and the seventeen Daedric Lords could affect Remnant. The "what-if"s could open a whole new realm of possibilities.

While he was thinking, he decided to wander the dormitory. After a few minutes, he saw Neopolitan pacing outside of one door, arguing with herself under her breath. Crouching and hiding behind the corner of the nearest intersection, he cast a spell to bolster her courage and ducked out of sight.

"What–?" A second later, he heard her sigh and knock on the door.

The door opened, and a voice he recognized as that of Maybelle Dafydis said, "Do I know you?"

Neo spoke quietly, but was interrupted. "I'm–"

"Mom?!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: A few things:**

 **The "Literal Sundae" pairing (Tukson/Neo), their daughter (Oreonna), and Oreonna's Beacon Team (MOON) first created by LongSean22 and put into story form by SuperKamek/WhiteFreak14 (Fanfiction/Deviantart usernames) is canon in this story. Not sure how much we'll see of them.**

 **Yes, I went the "Jaune becomes dragonborn" route, but with the twist of him having the Last Dragonborn to learn from.**

 **Next chapter, we will be entering the Vytal Festival Tournament and Volume 3. However, with the big shakeup that is Cinder's imprisonment (and the resulting disqualification of Team CMSN), how will things diverge?**


	11. Chapter 11

The past few weeks had seen Jasiir pushing harder than ever for his students to improve; the newest whispered joke was that he had become either a drill sergeant or a slave-driver in his methods. He had enhanced his spars, attacking with everything short of his Semblance, revealing that he had been going easy on his students. Whole teams were defeated within a class period, including well-performing and powerful teams such as RWBY, CFVY, and JNPR.

* * *

Unbeknownst to all except Team JNPR, some of his toughest lessons were reserved for Jaune Arc. Night after night, he had brought the young knight out to a secluded part of the Emerald Forest to train him in the use of the thu'um. First Pyrrha, then Nora and Ren, asked to accompany the pair, and Jasiir allowed it.

The first night, they boarded a Bullhead and headed out. When they arrived, they cleared the area of Grimm, and Lejule began looking at the trees. Periodically, he would tap the trunk of one of the trees before shaking his head and moving on. Finally, after studying one that was more than a foot thick, he muttered, "This one will do."

Pyrrha tilted her head. "Professor?"

He ignored her and addressed Jaune. "The power of the dragons takes the form of what is called 'Thu'um' or Shouts. In essence, you use words of a divine language to command reality to bow to your whim."

"Whoa." The blonde remembered himself and stood straight. "So, what do we do first?"

Ren, however, noted something. "How come I have never heard of anything like this?"

Jasiir sighed. "Well, as you are here, I may as well tell you four. I am not from Remnant."

Nora scoffed. "Well, duh. We knew that." The others stared at her. "What? You **didn't**? Come on! He did magic on the first day, and his weapons and armor are unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of. There have been times he's been near-clueless about normal stuff, like pancakes! Plus, how many Faunus have more than one animal trait?"

The Professor's jaw hung open. "I am astounded and impressed that you figured all of that out." He recomposed himself. "Anyway, Jaune, your first lesson will be to find the extent of your power. Close your eyes, concentrate, and look deep inside yourself. Try to find your soul. What do you see?"

"Um. I see a…cage. With its door open a little bit. In the cage, there's something white. Reptilian. It has wings, two legs, a tail, and a large head filled with teeth. One of its eyes is closed, while the other is half-open." Jaune opened his eyes. "That's it."

"Interesting. What you see is your dragon soul. From what you describe, it is only partially awakened." He stepped up to Jaune, his eyes flashing from their usual ruddy color to pale blue with inhuman slits. Some form of energy passed from teacher to student, and Jaune's eyes turned gold, again. Jasiir stepped back. "Incredible. I have fully awakened your dragon, and it may be more powerful than my own. I can begin your second lesson with the confidence that you will succeed."

"And, what is the second lesson?"

"You will be learning the first Shout I learned. Unrelenting Force." He nodded toward the tree. "When you have fully realized it, I expect you to be able to blow down this tree with just your Voice."

"My…Voice? Knock down that tree? There's no way."

Jasiir simply turned toward a slightly smaller tree and bellowed. " **FUS RO DAH!** " A wave of bluish energy flew from his jaws into the tree, ripping it out by the roots and flinging it from a few feet away. "'No way,' you say? Such is the power of a dragonborn. You can make the impossible, real. Now, to begin." He looked to the ground and whispered. "Fus."

A series of triangular lines appeared on the ground. "Professor, what is that?" She knelt down to look, but the Professor pulled her back.

"It is the language of the dragons, Dovahzul, and is for Jaune, alone. Jaune, walk over the glyphs."

The blonde did so, and wisps of power flowed from the marking into his chest. His eyes closed in concentration. "Fus. Force. The first Word of three for the Unrelenting Force Shout."

The cat nodded. "Excellent. You learn as quickly as I did. Now I will share with you my understanding of 'Fus.'" He stepped over to Jaune, and the same energy transfer seemed to occur. "Show me that you understand, now. Shout at me. At this stage, your thu'um will only stagger me, at most."

" **FUS!** "

The force knocked Jasiir back a couple of steps. "Good, good! Let's move on to the second Word, 'Ro.'" The pattern repeated with one difference: this time, the Faunus was thrown onto his back. As he stood up, he said, "I mean this in a good way, but your power is unbelievable. Your Aura must be one of the strongest ever known, for you are far more powerful than me. It is time for the final Word, and the test to go with it."

After learning final Word, 'Dah,' and receiving the knowledge of its meaning from Jasiir, Jaune turned to the tree he was to bring down and concentrated. After a moment, he Shouted. " **FUS RO DAH!** " The tree's roots exploded into a cloud of splinters as the tree was flung into the air and flew several yards. "Whoa-oh, I don't feel so good."

Jaune stumbled, but he was caught by Jasiir and Pyrrha. "Oh. My apologies. I may have made your training a little too hurried. I'll slow down in the future, as you have twenty one more Shouts to learn. Let's head back to Beacon."

* * *

By the time of the Vytal Festival, Jaune had mastered seven more Shouts: Fire, Frost, and Lightning Breaths; Aura Whisper; Whirlwind Sprint; Battle Fury; and Disarm. To ensure that he would not wear out, the pace of his learning had been slowed down to one word per night. However, Jasiir had warned him to only use the thu'um when he was alone with his team, as using it otherwise might attract undue attention.

In addition, the professor had forged new suits of armor for Jaune and his partner. Jaune's was a set of heavy plate armor constructed from a black metal Jasiir had called "ebony" that was only found in his homeland. The suit covered pretty much every part of Jaune's body from head to toe.

Pyrrha's new armor was crafted from a pale yellow-white metallic rock the Faunus had labeled "moonstone," also found only in his homeland. In a word, the armor was beautiful, with flowing curves and intricate designs, even more so than the ebony armor. Its coverage was far greater than her old armor, with her chest and legs completely protected, although her upper arms were left uncovered for mobility's sake. Curiously, it seemed as though the armor had once been larger before being shaved down to fit her frame.

* * *

Lejule led his family through the stands of the massive arena. The day had finally arrived: the start of the Vytal Festival Tournament. When they found their seats, Aela leaned toward him. "Well, you've been here the longest of us. What's going to happen in this Tournament?"

He leaned in as well and began pointing out what he spoke of. "This first round of matches will be full team battles, four versus four. When they enter the arena, they will walk to the center and wait for the environment to form."

"What does that mean?"

"I wish I knew. Anyway, pictures of the teams that are competing will be displayed there and there with a reading of their Aura levels displayed in the space between. During the match, itself, the rules are rather like they are in Cyrodiil: use whatever means are available to batter your opponent until either their Aura falls below fifteen or they are flung out of the combat circle; in other words, into that ring of sand."

"Got it. So, any idea who's up first?"

He reached into the pockets of his pants and withdrew the program sheet. "Let's see. The first match is–"

Professor Port's voice bellowed over the public address system of the Amity Coliseum, cutting Lejule off. "Welcome, one and all, to the Fortieth biannual Vytal Festival Tournament, and it promises to be a heart-pounder! I am Professor Peter Port of Beacon Academy, and with me is my colleague, Professor Bartholomew Oobleck."

Oobleck's annoyance at the use of the wrong title seeped into his voice. " _Doctor_. And, yes Peter, looking at the lineup for this year's tournament competitors is like looking at a list of the best Huntsmen and Huntresses of the coming generation."

"Cor-rect. For those of you who are watching the Tournament, either on television or in person, for the first time, allow us to break down the rules."

"The tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds: Teams, Doubles, and Singles."

"Teams will compete in team-versus-team matches. The winners of this round will select two of their members to represent them in the Doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing one member to advance once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving VICTORY for their kingdom."

"Yes. In addition, age and school year are irrelevant. In this tournament, the only attribute being tested…is skill. Now, let's see who has the honor of the first match of this Tournament!"

Two sets of four picture slots appeared and spun. Lejule knew from talking to others that it was only for dramatic effect and would be dropped for all following matches. Still, he feigned interest in the selection. When the pictures stopped and the two teams entered the arena, Port spoke again. "It looks like we have Team PLTM of Shade versus Team MOON of Beacon! Team PLTM is an up-and-coming second-year team known for extreme power, but Team MOON is a group of rookie sensations with unusual tactics. Let's see what strategy is better."

* * *

Oreonna checked the tuning knobs of Symphonic Discord's viola shield, again. Even without wind, her shoulder-less black coat flickered behind her thanks to her fidgeting tail. She looked over at her teammates.

To Oreo's left, Maybelle held her massive club, Alexandra Grande, across her armored shoulder, looking completely relaxed as she looked at MOON's approaching foes. Then again, that seemed to be the big cow Faunus's standard emotional state.

To her right, Oran was playfully punching at the air, although not hard enough to activate the Wind Dust in his Gust Bracers. When the hyena noticed Oreonna's nervousness, he smiled. "Hey, no need to be nervous. Only the entire world is watching. Plus your mom." He nodded toward the stands.

Oreonna followed his gaze until her eyes came to rest on a now-familiar visage of black pigtails and green eyes. When their eyes met, her mother's flashed pink and brown to confirm that it was her before returning to green. Even more embarrassed, Oreo returned to the examination of her team.

At the other end of the group, Nichol was glaring at their imminent opponents. The lacrosse-stick-spoon-Dust-launcher hybrid weapon, Retour du Destin, was held point down-and-forward for quick access.

Deciding to follow her taciturn colleague's example, Oreonna turned her attention to their competition, Team PLTM.

Furthest to Oreonna's left was a young woman with coppery hair and matching eyes, although the very tips of her hair were black as though burnt. She wore a ruddy brown coat with matching jeans and a pentagonal arrow-shaped red cape split down the middle so as to resemble bird wings. Beneath the coat, she was wearing a yellow shirt. At her waist were sheathed two kris shortswords. All together, the woman seemed to be trying to evoke the imagery of her being a living flame or a bird made thereof.

Beside her was a young man who seemed like he would rather be anywhere else. In a word, he was average, with tan skin, black hair, and brown eyes. He wore a white t-shirt and khaki pants. Strapped to his back was a…well, Oreonna was unsure of what it was called. She had thought it to be a staff, but it was both too thick and made of metal; it was also too long to be considered a club. Additionally, there seemed to be two C-shaped hilts sticking out of the thin end of the weapon pointing in opposite directions.

Next in line was a Faunus, the first reptilian one she had ever seen. Claws tipped his hands and a long, green-scaled tail waved behind him. His eyes were narrowed and a disturbingly familiar smile graced his lips; it was the same near-psychotic, bloodthirsty smirk both Oreonna and Neo wore when about to kill something. The man seemed to possess no weapons on or under his snake-skin jacket. His hair was a near-black green and was worn in a ponytail that reached nearly to his waist.

The final member of the team, who looked to be the youngest, wore a red-and-gold kimono, with fair features that were reminiscent of Lie Ren or Yatsuhashi Daichi; maybe she was from the same ethnic group as them? Her black hair was tied up into a bun and secured with…were those chopsticks? Secured to her back on a worn leather strap was a large slab of wood with what seemed to be tiny legs at either end. Attached to her index and middle fingers and thumb were chisel-shaped pieces of bamboo; Oreonna had no idea what those were for. When Team PLTM reached the center of the arena, the teenager slid the wood off her shoulders and laid it on the ground; now able to see it better, Oreonna was able to determine that it was some variety of string instrument and that the bamboo strapped to her fingers probably worked like guitar picks.

Around the border of the fighting area, the screens representing the terrain selection flared into life and began cycling. The woman in the long coat called out to Oreonna's friends. "May the best team win."

An echoing "ding" sound signaled the selection of the environment on Team MOON's side. The picture showed a stylized representation of a collapsed building. Their half of the combat area opened up and a ruined cityscape rose into view.

* * *

Aela's and Lejule's eyes widened and their jaws dropped. "Okay. I wasn't expecting that. That's pretty damn impressive."

"Wow. Not even the Imperial City Arena can do that."

* * *

A second ding indicated that the other half of the arena was set; a rendering of two trees preceded the arrival of a forest. Maybelle grabbed the handle of Alexandra Grande in both hands and swung it in front of her, using her Semblance to lessen gravity's hold on her. "Get ready."

Oran punched his fists together to prime the Wind Dust within them.

Oreonna drew her gun-sword, which also doubled as the bow for the viola portion of her shield.

Nichol held her staff to the side and rotated the Dust chamber to Ice Dust.

The hyena Faunus cackled when he saw that. "'Ice to see you make such an appropriate choice, Frost Duchess."

That earned him a groan and a glare from the gray-haired girl. "One, please don't call me that. Two, you should be shot for that pun."

"Hey, it wasn't **that** bad."

"Maybe not, but it _was_ too unoriginal for you."

The only man on Team MOON turned toward her. "Whoa! Was that an attempt at a joke? There may be hope for you yet."

Nichol simply groaned again.

Oobleck and Port came back onto the loudspeaker. "3…2…1…Begin!"

The snake leaped forward, but was blown back by Oran, who followed him into the forest.

Maybelle and Mr. Ordinary engaged in club-to-club combat.

Team PLTM's leader drew her kris and pounced on Nichol, who formed an ice projectile and froze the other woman's leg.

Oreonna, on the other hand, decided to speak to her opponent. "So, you're a musician?"

She looked up. "Yes." She looked at Oreo's viola. "Are you?"

The cat nodded her head to the side. "After a fashion."

Without another word, the girl began plucking at the strings of her instrument. After a moment, Oreonna recognized the tune, put the viola-shield's pad to her neck, and drew the bow across the strings as she joined in.

* * *

Lawrence Topaz grabbed Wolfsbane in both hands and used it to knock aside the absurdly large club wielded by the large cow Faunus. Before the club struck the ground, he jabbed his kanabo into her face, knocking her back. He followed it up with an uppercut swing that sent her stumbling.

She then caught him off guard by parleying her stumble into a wide swing of her club that threw him into one of the artificial buildings and drained a large amount of his Aura.

* * *

Typhon caught himself on a tree with his tail, hissing at the hyena and flexing his claws. He concentrated on his soul, energy flowing through his body until it exited his lips as a blast of flame.

The damn hyena simply blew the fire back at him.

Although his Semblance protected both him and his clothes from the blaze, Typhon was still pissed off by his foe's sheer cocky attitude. He dropped to the ground and crawled toward his opponent, dodging gusts of wind launched from the hyena's fists the whole way.

When he was close enough, he pounced at the orange-haired annoyance and slammed his tail into him. Pressing his advantage, Typhon launched himself at the hyena.

Then something happened that he didn't expect. The other Faunus shouted, "Hey, Maybelle. Laughing Cow!"

The cow Faunus, who had just knocked Lawrence into a fake building, pointed her club in their direction, popped the top off of it, and discharged a massive cannonball at them. The hyena's fist intercepted it and redirected it into the snake's chest.

The impact wrenched the air from Typhon's lungs and sent him into a tree. He was unable to recover before the hyena was upon him, point-blank wind blasts from his bracers shredding what was left of the snake's Aura until the fifteen-percent buzzer sounded.

The arena's speakers interjected Professor Port's opinion. "Oh, great teamwork on the part of Maybelle and Oran."

Oobleck joined in. "And a breathless defeat for Ebon Typhon."

* * *

Cadmin smiled as her weapons blurred from the speed of her strikes against her opposing caped warrior. Her smile widened as she took note of how many of those strikes were being blocked by the other woman's staff.

The smile turned into a full-blown grin when one exchange ended with both of her blades locked with her foe's weapon. "Having fun? I sure am."

"This is no game." Her opponent shoved her away, the revolving Dust chamber of the spoon-tipped staff rotating until Burn Dust was the active one. A flick of the weapon sent a stream of fire hurtling toward Phoenix, who, just for show, hopped and twisted out of the way.

She came down and clacked her kris' hilts together, the mechanisms within combining the two daggers into a double-bladed staff. "Of course it is." She crouched down and charged her Semblance.

Oobleck spoke up then. "Oh, Nichol might want to move."

Port chimed in. "Yes. Phoenix's Semblance is quite devastating."

Rather than stand there and question what the announcers were speaking of or futily turn and run, Nichol raised her hand and a shield of pure energy sprang into being. Then Cadmin practically exploded. A massive conflagration emanated from her and struck the force field. The blast flung the mage back, although her Semblance had managed to protect her from the worst of the damage.

Phoenix rushed in, and the two became whirlwinds of twirling staffs, striking and blocking at a furious pace. Finally, the redhead batted away Nichol's staff with one end of her weapon and stab away most of her opponent's remaining Aura, eliminating her. She reached down a hand. "Good game."

* * *

Lawrence pulled himself out of the rubble and shook his head to remove the cobwebs. A thud followed by a buzzer brought his attention to his team leader just in time to see her sliding down the defensive barrier between the fighters and the audience, having been ejected from the combat area by the cow. A familiar rage overtook him; his pack was being harmed. In response, his Semblance activated.

His legs stretched and bent into a digitigrade form. His black hair spread to become fur that covered the entirety of his body, with the exception of his face above his chin. His finger- and toenails stretched into bone-white claws. Bony armor grew in a rib-cage pattern over the fur chest and back. Similar blunt spines grew out of his shoulders, elbows, back, and knees, and studs of bone formed on his hips and shoulders. The skin and muscle on his face seemed to dissolve away until all that remained was red-streaked bone. His ears migrated to the top of his head and lengthened. His jaws pushed outward into a lupine muzzle. The transformation was over with quickly, and he roared in challenge.

Oobleck's comment was understandably awestruck. "Ladies and gentlemen, here we have one of the most unique Semblances I have ever seen. Feast your eyes on the Wolf of Shade."

The hyena, Oran, was the closer challenger. He sucked in a breath, his chest expanding greatly. Having seen what happened to Typhon, Lawrence dug his claws into the false pavement. This ensured that he only slid back a few feet from the orange-haired boy's full lung capacity. In a flurry of activity, Lawrence rushed forward and battered the exhausted Faunus boy with his claws and club. The buzzer rang again to indicate the blower's defeat.

* * *

That all happened in the time it took for Maybelle to turn around. She coiled her legs and leaped high into the air before reversing her Semblance and coming down like a meteor. The monster was quicker, however, and avoided most of her swings.

The entire time, she was wondering how the heck a beowolf alpha managed to get into the arena. Then she hit it, and Alexandra struck Aura. That was when the words of Doctor Oobleck registered in her mind. _He can shapeshift?!_

A straight kick walloped her in the chest, sending her tumbling almost to the edge of the combat area, followed closely by the wolf. She bounded out of the way of its charge using her Semblance. This turned out to be the worst idea.

He swung the club at her, and the tip of the handle separated from the main body, which continued its flight directly at Maybelle. Somehow, the other student had managed to time it so that she was hit just as she was leaving the ground. This caused her to throw herself out of the combat area and onto the sand.

* * *

By this time, Oreonna and the other girl of PLTM had finished their duet. "You play rather well, Miss…?"

"My name is Mosura. And yours?"

"Oreonna. You know, we should play together some other time."

Mosura nodded. "Yes, we should. I am now a little ashamed that this is a combat tournament, as I would rather not fight you, now."

Oreonna smirked. "You could surrender, save yourself the trouble."

The other girl laughed. "My teammates would never let me hear the end of it."

A roar behind her reminded Oreonna that Mosura wasn't alone. She brought her shield up to block the double slash from the one other remaining member of Team PLTM, the rebounding effect of the strings dropping his Aura to fourteen percent; Maybelle could hit hard, having reduced his Aura to sixteen percent, previously.

She turned back to her opponent to see her finish casting away her kimono, revealing what amounted to a brown, backless tank top, matching short-shorts, and a tiny set of moth wings. Mosura picked up her instrument and tapped a disguised panel on the bottom of it; the panel slid open, revealing a katana that crackled with Lightning Dust when it was drawn from its sheath.

"It is down to you and me. May the best sword-and-shield user emerge victorious. Good luck, Oreonna." She planted the instrument in front of her as though it were a tower shield, her sword held point-up above the shield.

The cat moved to strike first, then activated her Semblance and split into two individuals that struck on either side of the moth. Smashed between shield and sabre, Mosura was sent stumbling a few steps. Sword!Oreonna hopped onto her black-haired duplicate's shield, using it as a springboard to launch herself at the other Faunus.

The sword slash hit just the wooden shield. Then Mosura activated her Semblance and underwent her own transformation, her wings expanding to a span of nearly twenty feet as she lifted off the ground. She flew at both Oreonnas, her katana weaving a deadly electrical pattern through the air.

To avoid the attack, Oreonna merged herself back together and ran for the forest, realizing that the trees were too dense for her flying opponent to move through. What she didn't count on was for Mosura to fly still higher and emit lightning from her wings. A multitude of bolts struck among the wood, setting the timber ablaze and eliciting a very unladylike expletive from the cat, who scrambled to find somewhere that was safe from the barrage.

Even with her feline speed, Oreonna was still struck by two of the jagged yellow beams, throwing her off her feet and drastically draining her Aura. The only thing that saved her was that Mosura's Semblance suddenly ended and the moth collapsed in exhaustion. Oreo slowly picked herself up, staggered over to her foe, and put her sword to the other Faunus's chin.

To her surprise, Mosura simply smiled. "Withstanding the entirety of my Semblance. You have earned a very worthy win." She then fell over, unconscious.

"And, by a very narrow margin, Team MOON clinches the victory and moves on."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was a chapter I've been wanting to do for a while (although far from the one I most anticipate writing). I hope I've written Team MOON well enough, considering how little there actually is about them.**

 **I do have one question for LongSean22: Who would Team MOON send to the doubles round?**

 **This also marks the appearance of a few of my RWBY OCs: Team PLTM. Every team in the show (and a number of fan teams follow the example) has a theme: RWBY is fairy tales, JNPR is genderbent historical/mythological characters, CRDL is birds, CFVY is food (I wish I was making that up.), and LongSean22's OC Team MOON is "The Cat and the Fiddle" (or whatever that nursery rhyme is entitled).**

 **Well, Team PLTM's theme is mythological/movie monsters. Its leader, Cadmin Phoenix is based on the primarily-Greek Phoenix bird (Her Semblance, rather like that of Marvel's supervillain Nitro, lets her create an explosion and survive it.); Lawrence is, rather obviously, based on The Wolfman, Lawrence Talbot (His Semblance is to transform into a beowolf Alpha.); Ebon Typhon is based on Typhon, the Greek "Father of Monsters" (His Semblance is to breathe fire.) and Mosura (full name Mosura Niji) is based on Mothra from the Toho kaiju movies (specifically her incarnation from Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth) (Her Semblance gives her several of the powers Mothra displayed in that movie.).**


	12. Chapter 12

The final match of the day was ongoing, and nearing its end. Team CRDL of Beacon was fighting Team CRMN of Atlas. Lejule was pleased as he watched the new teamwork displayed by the ones who had once been the Academy's resident bullies.

Cardin was keeping one of the remaining members of CRMN pinned down with swift, wild swings of his mace, fists, and feet. With an unspoken command, the orange-haired young man ducked down just as Russell's spinning charge flew over his head.

The green-haired dagger-user kicked the Atlas student in the face and followed it up with a few slashes of his daggers. Like a well-oiled machine, he twisted out of the way to allow Cardin back in to deliver the final blow, triggering the Aura buzzer.

In a similar manner, Dove was peppering the opponent of him and Sky with bullets to ensure that she would be hit by some weapon at any time. Before long, a final strike from Mr. Lark's halberd caved in her Aura, and she was eliminated.

With that, the match was over. "Team CRDL is victorious."

While Dr. Oobleck asked the attendees to calmly leave the Coliseum (although his method of doing so was most certainly not calm as just about everyone winced), Lejule led his family to a transport heading for the fairgrounds. To his surprise, they were joined by Teams RWBY, MOON, and PLTM before the ship took off. Yang was the first to speak. "Hey, Prof. What are you planning to do for the rest of the day?"

"My family and I are having dinner at the fair before turning in for the day. You?"

"Hanging out with friends." She gestured to the other students.

Lejule looked over the assembled adolescents. "Friends, huh?" Then he noticed the pure venom in the gaze one of the members of PLTM, Ebon Typhon if he recalled correctly, was directing at Weiss. "Is there a problem, sir?"

Typhon's response was not directed at the professor. "My sister was worked to death in one of your mines, Schnee."

The heiress tried to be diplomatic. "I am not my father. Those practices will die with him. I promise."

The snake scoffed. "The promise of a Schnee is as worthless as a house outside of a Kingdom's walls. All of you see the Faunus as worthless animals."

"That is not true."

"Oh, really? Then what do you think about the nine Faunus in this room?"

Team MOON's Nichol's brow furrowed. "There are only eight Faunus here." Lejule heard her add, under her breath, "Although that's eight too many for my comfort."

Typhon blinked. "You really can't see the obvious? Stupid human. How many people does that–"

"Enough." Lejule fed a little of the thu'um into his voice, granting it an authoritative depth.

Phoenix laid a hand on her teammate's shoulder. "Let it go, Typhon. It's not worth it."

He smacked her arm away. "'Not worth it?' 'Not worth it?!' My whole family slaved away in a Dust mine just so that the Schnees could line their pockets with more and more Lien. My parents died in a cave-in, while I watched my sister waste away from fatigue and abuse, and you say that trying to demand recompense is 'not worth it?'"

"I'm sorry."

All eyes turned to Weiss. "You're…WHAT?"

"I'm sorry for what happened to your family. I promise to do what I can to improve the lives of every Faunus who works or has worked for the Schnee Dust Company. I don't know how long it will take to undo the damage my father did, but I swear that I will do it."

While that did lessen Typhon's anger, it was not completely abated. "All well and good when such a promise is just words, but can you actually see the Faunus as people? What would you do if you learned the truth about the one you trust?"

"I already know."

"Really? How much did you tell them, Blake Belladonna?"

The normally calm black cat glared at the serpent. "Excuse me?"

"What? Did you honestly think that a bow would be able to disguise who and what you are? From the moment I saw you, I knew. Any Fang would."

Weiss backed up in horror. "You're a member of the White Fang?"

Lejule prepared a choice spell for if things got out of hand.

Cadmin rather roughly shoved Typhon behind her. " _Was_ a member. He's been gone, what was it, three years?"

Ebon opened his jacket to reveal a stylized white wolf head on a blue rectangle "Two. They rescued me from that f*****g mine. I ran with them for near a decade. And then the high and mighty Blake Belladonna left."

Blake growled. "Don't. Bring. That. Up."

Before another word could be said, Lejule cast a new spell he had crafted while he was here: System Shock; it was designed to hide a strong Paralysis effect inside a Shock Damage effect. It worked as intended, Typhon's body recoiling from the electrical blast before locking in that position and collapsing to the ground as the Paralysis bypassed his Aura. "Now then, I expect everyone to behave in a civil manner for the rest of the day and to, for the most part, pretend that this conversation never happened. Understand?" The kids nodded. "Good."

* * *

Aela leaned against one of the trees ringing the fairgrounds and considered the evening amidst the dwindling crowds.

It had taken a great deal of self-restraint for her to keep her wolf from unleashing its fury on the repugnant snake. Even though she had only been here on Remnant for a few weeks, she had managed to learn about the White Fang. The group claimed to be fighting for the rights of the planet's beastfolk, the Faunus, but they were indiscriminate in who was affected by their activities. Faunus and humans alike were harmed by the "bombs" they used to target those who oppressed the Faunus. Recently, however, they had also been targeting those Faunus who advocated a peaceful coexistence with humanity.

The only reasons Aela hadn't struck the serpent were 1) he had left the Fang, and 2) Lejule had dropped him first.

Speaking of her husband, he walked up and tossed her a bottle of mead, Honningbrew, of course. She caught it and popped the cork. Taking a swig, she asked, "The kids alright?"

Lejule opened his own bottle. "Yeah." He took a drink. "Ma'isha is playing a 'Test-Your-Strength' game where you hit a target with a hammer. She and Nora are each trying to outdo the other. I think the game will break before they're done."

The she-wolf laughed. "Yeah. Our daughter doesn't give up, and she hates coming in second." Another swallow of the honey-wine burned its way down her throat. "And Ma'rahka?"

"I saw him talking with Weiss over coffee earlier." He drew a long draught from his bottle. "If my eyes weren't deceiving me, I think I noticed an Amulet of Mara in his pocket."

Aela sputtered. "Truly? Our boy's looking for love? Hmm. I guess there could be worse choices than that Ice Queen."

Lejule sighed. "You, too, Aela? Really? Weiss is called that by so many people already that she doesn't need anyone else doing so."

"Sorry. Since I mainly saw her friends using it, I thought it was an affectionate nickname." She finished her bottle. "Speaking of romance, would you like to join me for a 'hunt?'"

Tipping the bottle up to catch the last dregs, the cat replied, "I suppose it could be fun. Won't be much prey we can use, however. Just Grimm."

"Eh, those'll do. I just need to run."

Lejule nodded, knowing what she meant. While he could control and contain the beast far better than she could, even his wolf was itching to be released. He had not shifted since Mountain Glen.

* * *

The pair of them slipped into the trees and out of sight of anyone else. A few hundred feet from the perimeter of the fairgrounds, they took off their clothes, stuffed them into Lejule's satchel, and shifted into their beast forms.

With twin howls of joy, they bounded into the Emerald Forest. Over the next hours, the two werewolves tore apart any Grimm they came across. Their first victims were a trio of ursai, one a major. Before the bears even knew the werewolves were there, Aela had dug her claws into the mask of one and tore its head off, while Lejule had snapped off two of the bone spines of the major and driven them up through its skull. The last ursa backed up, roaring at them in challenge.

Neither werewolf was impressed, sharing a glance and a mental conversation. They rushed forward, bowling the bear over and pinning its forelimbs down. Then, Lejule and Aela bit down and began eating the Grimm alive.

Aela immediately spat out her first bite. _Ugh. It tastes horrid, like the thing's made of tar or something._

Lejule swallowed his bite, shuddering at the taste. _I have eaten worse, but Grimm flesh isn't feeding the wolf. I guess our prey needs to be infused with a soul for Hircine's gift to register the offering._ He reached over and snapped the ursa's neck. _Let's keep hunting._

* * *

In retrospect, Emerald realized, trying to follow the disruptive Faunus by herself was probably not the best idea, but she had thought she'd find him, or at least a trail, before the light died. Instead, she'd found the tracks left by the less-stealthy woman who was with him. Greatly confusing Emerald was the fact that the footprints stopped a few hundred feet into the trees, giving way to two sets of beowolf-like paw prints.

Exacerbating matters was the fact that, when she found the trail, night had fallen, and she had to use the light of her Scroll to see clearly. A pack of beowolves ambushed her, and, in the melee, she lost track of everything, including which way was which. She pulled grabbed her Scroll to call Mercury, but the device had been damaged at some point, and what little of the display worked showed that there was no signal in the area she was.

For the first time since joining up with Cinder, Emerald felt afraid, worrying that she may never get out of this forest before something ate her. She almost started wandering the Emerald Forest before realizing that such an action would simply get her more and more hopelessly lost. Instead, she climbed a tree and settled in to wait for daybreak, the best option she could figure out at the time.

"Crap, crap, crap." A howl pealed out from her left, deeper in the forest. However, it sounded unlike any howl she had ever heard before. "What the–?" She strained her eyes, which were beginning to adjust to the darkness, and, through the tree branches, saw something she could not understand at the absolute limit of her visual range.

There were two beowolf-like creatures, one with dark fur and darker stripes standing over another that seemed to have dark red fur. And they were…procreating.

Emerald immediately covered her eyes and tried to purge that image from her mind. Then she felt the wind tug at her hair. She gasped and her eyes widened in horror as she realized that said wind was blowing in the direction of the creatures, and both wolves and beowolves had incredible senses of smell. Acting quickly, she focused her gaze on them and tried to blot her scent out of the collection they were getting.

She wasn't fast enough, as she saw the one on top perk up, sniff the air, and look in her direction. Removing multiple sensory inputs from two minds was beyond the capabilities of her Semblance, currently, and the resulting migraine hit her with so much pain that she recoiled and fell out of the tree.

Either she blacked out, the pain rendered her insensate, or the creatures could move with the utmost stealth (Emerald wasn't sure what was the worst possibility.), because the next thing she was aware of was the striped creature, that she now realized was mostly brown, standing over her. Panicking, she reached for her carbines, but her holsters were empty. _This is it; this is where I die._

That was nowhere near what happened. The monster reached down toward her, and she covered her face with her arms. Then her eyes widened again, this time in surprise, when its arms slid under her knees and shoulders and it gently picked her up.

"What?"

It gave no response, instead carrying her for some minutes. Finally, when the lights of the fairgrounds faintly came into view, it put her down and pointed towards civilization before loping off back into the forest. A second later, her kusari-gama/carbines flew out from behind a bush to land at her feet.

Still dazed from how her head was spinning, Emerald numbly bent down and retrieved her weapons before backing toward the festival. Mercury found her rather quickly. "What happened to you? Where were you? Why didn't you answer your Scroll?"

She answered in reverse order, pulling out the ruined device. "I thought I saw something in the forest. Turned out to be a pack of beowolves. I got lost in the fight and took a while to find my way back." All of those were half-truths, as she was sure that her partner wouldn't believe the whole truth; she wasn't sure she believed it, and she had experienced it.

The assassin's son held out a hand to her. "Come on. You're no good to anyone dead."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: The section with Emerald surprised me by literally writing itself. It wasn't planned. What was planned was Lejule and Aela stumbling across and massacring a White Fang encampment, but instead...**


	13. Chapter 13

The sun hung high in the sky; the second match of the second day was over, Team RWBY having defeated Team ABRN of Haven. Ma'rahka caught up to them afterward. "My gods, you girls were incredible out there. Your abilities…just wow. And your teamwork. I've seen soldiers who do not have that level of coordination."

Ruby blushed. "Oh, stop." She trailed off into incoherent muttering, the clearest word being "flatter."

It was Weiss who spoke next, a wry smile gracing her features. "What my partner means to say is thank you for the praise, although there are things we could improve upon." Switching subjects, she added, "To celebrate our victory, we were heading off to get lunch. You're welcome to join us, if you want."

The cat tilted his head, caught off guard by what he thought of as mixed signals from the heiress. Last night, when he had presented the amulet and explained its meaning, she had told him that she wasn't ready to reach that step in a relationship, but now she was inviting him to dine with her. _Girls are so confusing_. Still…"I would love to. Lead the way." A few minutes later, they arrived at a food stand whose sign depicted a black tower surrounded by wavy tan lines. "'A Simple Wok?'"

"Best noodles you've ever tasted," was Yang's explanation as she sat on one of the stools in front. When the proprietor walked over, she placed her order. "I'll have a bowl of the 'Regular.'" Faster than Ma'rahka's eyes could track, a half-cauldron-sized bowl full of strings of wet bread was prepared and slid onto the counter before the blond brawler.

Ruby looked at the bowl. "Oooh. I'll take the same." At the same pace, an identical bowl was whipped into place.

Weiss cringed. "Do you have anything with a low salt–?" Before she could finish speaking, a third bowl was in front of her. "Oh. Um, okay."

Blake simply nodded at the old man, who nodded back and rushed into the kitchen at the rear of the shop. Ma'rahka heard the sound of something sizzling and his mouth watered. Less than a second later, the man returned, plopping a heaping bowl full of roasted fish down in front of the black cat. She began to drool as stars filled her eyes.

Gulping away his own saliva, the tan cat said, "If you could, I would like the same as her." Five seconds later, he had his own helping of fish. He restrained himself long enough to reach for his money pouch, but Weiss beat him to it.

She handed a blue card to the stall owner. Yang noticed and commented on it. "Aw, Weiss, what's the occasion?"

"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round." She glanced toward Ma'rahka and smirked when she caught his eye, implying that that wasn't the only reason.

Before she could say anything more, however, the card was sent flying back hard enough to dig into the countertop. Everyone looked at the old man, who appeared very cross. He pointed at a device on the central counter in his stall, upon which the word "Declined" was flashing in angry red letters.

The heiress recoiled. "What? How could my card be 'declined?'" Half under her breath, she added, "I was barely into my monthly allowance."

While Weiss was speaking, Blake tried to surreptitiously pull her bowl closer, but the man noticed and snatched it away. In a display of emotion unlike anything Ma'rahka had ever seen from Team RWBY's most quiet member, she slumped over the counter, moaning, "Nooo!"

Struggling not to laugh, he pulled a Lien card out of his pocket and slid it across the counter; studying the posted menu had told him how much was needed to pay for the meal.

At the same time, Team JNPR walked up, dressed for battle, with Jaune and Pyrrha wearing the ebony and ancient Falmer armors Lejule had prepared for them, respectively. The only things they didn't have were their weapons. Pyrrha, seeing the sullen faces of the other team, spoke up. "Maybe I could help."

Her voice made Team RWBY aware of JNPR's presence. Ruby summed up their reaction. "Pyrrha!" She spread her arms as though cheering the Mistralian.

Yang attempted to wave her off. "Aw, you don't have to."

Blake leaned as close to her partner as she could, heavily invading Weiss' personal space. "But she could!"

Ma'rahka cleared his throat to get their attention. "Except I already did."

"Oh." The black cat blushed in embarrassment.

The blond-haired leader of Team JNPR asked, "Mind if we join you?"

There were no objections from Team RWBY or Ma'rahka.

* * *

Team JNPR ordered their food, except for Jaune, for whom Lejule had already made and given a pre-battle meal. Jaune thought back to his lunch as he watched his teammates, Team RWBY, and Ma'rahka eat.

* * *

" _Uh, Professor, what is this?" Jaune asked as he stared into the stew-like mix with chunks of cheese floating in it as it bubbled in a cauldron._

 _The, he had learned, Khajiit poured a measure of it into a bowl. "This is a delicacy from my homeland; it is called the Elsewyr Fondue. With it, your Aura will be stronger and be restored more quickly for the next several hours. Go on, eat."_

* * *

He was brought out of the memory when Nora asked, "So, Yang, how's your relationship with Ma'isha going? You 'together-together,' yet?"

Everyone cringed, looking to find some way to protect themselves from the blonde's furious rebuttal. It never came. Instead, Yang just blushed. "We're…doing well. How did you find out?"

"When we played that lame Test-Your-Strength game last night, we decided that the weaker of us would spill some secret of ours. I won and asked if she had anyone she was 'together-together' with. She said you."

Yang sagged in her seat until her face hit the counter. "I'm going to have to teach a certain kitty cat what's supposed to stay private."

Ma'rahka added his two Lien. "Well, as her brother, I have no objections to you dating my sister, Yang."

What could be seen of Yang's face was crimson.

Jaune decided to salvage the situation before any more embarrassment could be heaped on anyone else. "Let's just get back to eating our food. We're already running late."

A couple of minutes later, the nine diners were finished. Blake, Ma'rahka, Ruby, Yang, and Nora looked completely satisfied, while the others…not so much. Ren put it into words. "Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?"

Pyrrha's reply was quick, if not entirely convincing. "Of course. It will give us energy." The old man in charge of the noodle stand gathered the bowls for cleaning. "Well, we should be off."

As Jaune's partner stood up, Ruby asked, "So, you think you guys are ready?"

Nora's enthusiasm was infectious as she answered, "Of course!" She jerked her thumb toward Pyrrha. "We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team." She pointed at Ren. "What's basically a ninja." The thumbs turned toward herself. "I can bench five of me." She pointed at Jaune with both hands. "A friggin' dragon." She covered her mouth with her hand. "Oops. I wasn't supposed to say that. Um, just forget that I did?"

Jaune walked over and patted her shoulder. "It's okay, Nora. I was gonna tell RWBY, anyway, at some time."

Pyrrha joined in. "Don't fret. If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not…murderers."

Yang added her encouragement. "Yeah, don't sweat it. We've all faced way worse before."

Blake counted off the examples. "Let's see. An attempted Grimm invasion, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath."

Ruby's excitement boiled over. "And that's all while we're still in training! Oooh, imagine what it'll be like when we graduate!"

Sullenly, under her breath, Weiss chimed in. "Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal."

At that moment, the loudspeaker squawked and Professor Port's voice echoed over the fairgrounds. "Would Team JNPR please report to the battle grounds, immediately?"

Oobleck joined him. "Yes. Like they were scheduled to, _several minutes ago_."

Pyrrha said her goodbye for the day. "Well, looks like this is it."

Ruby pumped her fist. "Go get 'em!"

By the time JNPR had gathered their weapons and entered the arena, they found their opponents waiting for them. Jaune immediately studied them for any sort of surface-level tactical weakness. There were three boys and one girl. The girl wielded a long-barreled sniper rifle with an axe blade jutting from the base of its magazine, meaning that she likely fought at long range. One boy brandished a thin rod, while the other two wore two-pronged claws or a circular saw blade on each wrist. From that quick study, the other team seemed deficient in mid-range combat. "Alright. From what I can see, their weapons don't have much reach other than that sniper. Keep them beyond arm's reach as much as possible."

"Got it."

"Ren, you're our best at point-blank. Shut down the sniper."

"Sure. Just clear the way."

Port's voice poured out of the loudspeakers. "Our next match: Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade."

The terrain icons appeared and began to cycle. Jaune, keeping his stance as taught to him by both Pyrrha and Jasiir, glanced at the icons. Team BRNZ's side stopped on a stylized picture of two trees, something he recognized as the forest logo he had seen in Team MOON's match. "Crud," he muttered under his breath; the trees would give the sniper copious amounts of cover. Meanwhile, his team's half settled on what looked like a mountain with a thunderstorm raging above it. "Maybe not. Nora, if a storm appears, you get up to the top of the mountain as quickly as you can."

"You got it."

Again, Port's voice rang out. "3…2…1…Begin!"

As Jaune had feared, the sniper turned around and rushed for the trees. "Arkos! Let's plow a path." He and Pyrrha put their shields together at the front of their advance and bowled over the opponents before them.

Ren hopped onto their shoulders and continued after the sniper, dodging shots from her all along the way.

The remaining fighters paired off; the man with the saws fought Pyrrha, the man with the rod attacked Nora, and the claw-fighter squared off against Jaune.

* * *

As they watched Team JNPR fight, Team RWBY, joined by Ma'rahka, noted Jaune's technique as he bashed his opponent aside and followed up with a brutal uppercut that threw the man off his feet. "Well he's certainly improved," Weiss said dryly.

Yang nodded in agreement. "Yeah. He even seems to be catching up to Pyrrha."

* * *

Speaking of the Mistralian, her opponent had demonstrated that he could fling the saw blades and magnetically retract them. Pyrrha twisted between them, struck him with Milo, leaped over the blades as they returned, and then charged into him, shield first.

* * *

Nora's adversary was far more nimble than her, landing a number of blows with the side of his rod. Then he made the mistake of striking her with a thrust, revealing the weapon to basically be a cattle prod and discharging vast amounts of electricity…into someone whose Semblance allowed her to absorb lightning bolts.

Professor Port was quick to point out the man's mistake. "Oh, ho! It looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is _**charging up**_ to use her Semblance."

"What?"

Oobleck joined in on the explanation. "Yes. Miss Valkyrie's Semblance lets her absorb as well as channel electrical energy straight to her muscles."

The man yanked away his weapon, eyes widening in horror.

"This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or, in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"

Nolan held up his hands. "Um, mercy?"

Nora tilted her head up as though in thought, then flexed her arms as electricity flowed beneath her skin. "Um, no!" She swung Magnhild in a wide arc until it slammed into his crotch, sending him out of the fighting area with a nearly-depleted Aura

For the first time ever for many students, they heard Doctor Oobleck shudder. "Oh, that's gotta hurt."

Port joined him. "Wow, I felt that one from **here**."

* * *

Jaune heard the rumbling of thunder and saw dark clouds out of the corner of his eye. "Nora, the mountain."

"Yep, yep!" She took off at very high speed.

"Ren, how're you doing with that sniper?"

* * *

Ren blocked a swing of the axe blade by crossing Stormflower's blades. "Getting there." He shoved her weapon to the side and retaliated with a kick to the gut. She swung again, but he ducked and sent a spray of bullets back at her.

The sniper caught him off guard by feigning another swipe of her axe, but instead shot him point blank. He recovered faster then she expected and caught the handle with his blades. Ren yanked her close and slammed his forehead into her nose.

As she dropped her rifle in pain, he dropped Stormflower, gathered his Aura in his hands, and launched his palm into her chest, obliterating what remained of her Aura.

With the ringing of the elimination buzzer, Ren announced, "Sniper's down. We're good."

* * *

Jaune kicked his foe's legs out from under him and shoved the young man toward Pyrrha. She caught onto the plan immediately and, with a toss of Akouo, knocked her opponent into the path of his remaining teammate. At that moment, Nora came down like a pink meteor, scattering the pair like bowling pins. That finished them off.

* * *

The match after that was between Sun's team and another Shade-based team called NDGO. Team SSSN won, although two of their number were eliminated after doing very little. Oobleck again announced that the arena matches were over for the day, asking everyone to leave IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION.

After recovering from the sudden shout, Yang beckoned. "Come on, let's go congratulate 'em."

However, Ma'rahka bumped into Ruby, who in turn had bumped into Weiss, who had stopped to look at an airship that flew over the coliseum. Ruby asked, "What…are you doing?" before she followed Weiss' gaze.

Weiss' shoulders slumped in a way that suggested a type of tension she was feeling was melting away. "She's here!" The tone of voice was one the cougar had never heard before, but he found it adorable.

He tilted his head. "Who?"

"My sister, Winter. Oh! You have to meet her! Come on!" With those words, she practically ran out of the stadium, reaching a pace that made it hard for both Ruby and Ma'rahka to keep up.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: For all of those who ship Weiss with, well, anyone really, I apologize. All those ships have been torpedoed by what I am now calling the Stalhrim ship (For those who aren't Elder Scrolls Lore nuts, I'll explain the name in the next chapter.).**


	14. Chapter 14

Weiss' excitement to see her sister far overrode her body's capacity to feel exhaustion, for she had practically sprinted all the way to the Academy docks from the spot where the airship that had taken them away from the arena had landed. Even Ruby was a little winded. "Weiss, what's the big idea? Who is it?" She followed Weiss' gaze until she noticed a woman in a military uniform standing in front of the ribbon-trailing airship with her back toward them. "Who's _she_?"

In a near-dreamy tone, Weiss replied, "Winter."

Ma'rahka tilted his head. " _That_ is your sister? She's much older than I expected."

Weiss shaped her hands into a cone over her mouth. "Winter!"

Winter turned around, revealing that her bangs partially covered her right eye, and both her hair and eyes were the same icy blue-white as her sister's. The cat nodded to himself. "Okay. I can see it now."

Weiss ran up to her sister. "Winter! I'm so happy to see you!" Then she composed herself into her overly formal heiress-y manner. "Oh." She curtsied. "Your presence honors us."

Winter seemed to ignore her, instead looking around at the school. "Beacon. It's been a long time. The air feels…different."

Then Ruby proved once again that she wasn't the brightest in social situations. "I mean, it is fall, so…it's probably colder." At least she showed she knew how awkward the statement was by rubbing the back of her head, sheepishly.

The heiress' reply was to punch her team leader in the shoulder hard enough to stun her before changing the subject. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Classified."

Weiss folded her hands and looked at them. "Oh, right. Well, how long are you staying?"

" _Classified_." Winter's tone for that one said that the answer wouldn't change no matter how many times her sister asked.

"Of course."

Ma'rahka stepped forward. "Just how long have you been in the military?"

"Over a decade, not that you need to know."

"Really? Seems like it's been a lot longer than that."

He would have said more, but Weiss grabbed his arm and mouthed, _Later._

Ruby had recovered by this time and looked between the three of them. "Well, this is nice…I think"

Then Weiss' formality dropped away. "You're going to love it here! I know you travel a lot, but so much of Beacon is different from Atlas! Vale, too. The government and school are _completely separate_ , can you believe it?! I–"

Winter cut her off. "I am more than familiar with how this kingdom handles its…bureaucracy. That is not why I came."

"Right." Weiss bowed her head. "I'm sorry."

"Nor did I come to see my own blood fail so miserably in battle, but it appears I have no choice in the matter."

Ma'rahka growled. "Sister or no, you do not have the right to call her a failure. She and her team performed well in their match."

Winter scoffed. "Only a novice would refer to that as 'performing well.'" She turned toward Weiss. "I counted at least _**three**_ strikes missed." Weiss winced at the number. The older Schnee gestured to the robots behind her. "Leave us." When the machines had stepped back a bit, she sighed. "How have you been?"

Weiss slipped back into formality. "Oh, splendid! Thank you for asking. I'm actually in the top ranking of our sparring class. The rest of my studies are going wonderfully, too. I'm–"

Winter's hand whipped out from behind her back, palm ready to deliver a nasty slap to her sister, but Ma'rahka was faster, catching her wrist before she could land the blow. The woman glared at him. "While your reflexes are impressive, I would like to know why you dare–"

"Ma'rahka" Weiss internally eeped at accidentally using his real name instead of the pseudonym his family had agreed on, but it was too late now. "Let her go."

As he did so, Winter backhanded Weiss with her other hand and continued her reprimand as if it had not been interrupted. "Silence, you boob! I don't recall asking about your _ranking_. I asked how you've _been_. Are you eating properly? Have you taken up any hobbies? Are you making new friends?"

Weiss stopped rubbing the spot where she had been smacked to point at Ruby, revealing a massive welt. "Well, there's Ruby."

Ruby giggled and pushed the welt until it flattened. "Heh, 'boob.'"

"And I have a boyfriend, now."

"Truly? Who?"

"Ma'rahka." She gestured to the Khajiit, who suddenly looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

"A Faunus? How very…like you. Father would never approve." A very slight smile tilted the corners of her mouth. "But I do. If you think you can find joy in this boy's embrace, then I see no reason to stop you." She then turned to Ruby. "So, you are the leader Weiss wrote of in her letters to me. How appropriately…under whelming."

Ruby seemed at a loss for what to say before settling on, "Uh…thank you?"

"Greetings, Ruby Rose. I wish to thank you for taking an interest in my sister."

Both Ruby and Weiss gulped at the awkwardness, while Ma'rahka snickered. "You know, you could have used a better choice of words, there."

Ruby was the first of the girls to recover. "Oh, uh, yes. Of course." She saluted. "The honor…is in my…court!" She tried to curtsy, but nearly fell over, having to flap her arms to keep herself upright.

Winter's narrowed eyes showed that she was not impressed. Instead of commenting on it, she changed the subject. "I have business with the general and your headmaster." Then her tone shifted to something a hair more jovial. "But, seeing as I'm early, why don't you take me to your quarters?"

"Really?!" Weiss straightened.

Winter began walking toward the school, several androids moving into their escort formation. "Yes. I wish to inspect them and make sure they are up to my personal standards."

Weiss fell into step beside her sister. "Of course. Just so you're aware, the bunk beds only _look_ unstable."

"'Bunk…beds?'"

* * *

Ma'rahka joined them. "It's amazing what the girls were able to do in their room."

As they walked away, they could hear Ruby bidding them farewell. "I'll catch up…uh. I mean, I will…reconvene with you three…at a later…juncture!" The mage was impressed; despite the stilted delivery, Ruby's word choice was excellent. And she wasn't even sixteen, yet.

The group hadn't even made it halfway from the docks before Ma'rahka heard something go wrong. The two robots at the back of the group were picked up, disabled, and torn apart, the head of one of them being kicked toward Winter, by a man wearing a dingy white shirt, black pants, and a ratty red cape. "Get behind me."

Instead of attacking, the man shouted at Winter. "Hey!" His voice was raspy, and slightly slurred. When Winter and Weiss turned around, he continued. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, Ice Queen." He tossed away the corpse of the beheaded machine.

The remaining robots began to advance toward the man, but Winter called them off while Weiss walked toward him. "Excuse me. Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Despite only coming up to the man's waist, she managed to sound authoritative.

In response, he put his hand on her forehead. "Shhshhshh. Not you." He pushed her out of his way.

"Hey!"

The man glared at Winter. "You. Saw that gaudy ship of yours in town. Guess you're here too."

"I'm standing right before you." Weiss returned to her sister's side, where Ma'rahka pushed her further to safety.

The man squinted at Winter. "So it would seem."

"You do realize that you just destroyed Atlas military property?"

He feigned being shocked. "Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I mistook this for some sort of _sentient_ garbage."

"I don't have time for your immature games, _Qrow_."

Weiss walked back up to Winter. "Wait, you two know each other?"

Ma'rahka, however, buried his face in his hand. "I don't think Ruby or Yang would…actually, they'd love to see you pick a fight."

"Heh. You know my nieces well, then. Word of advice, kid? Don't get involved in adult matters. You know what Atlas is? A bunch of sell-outs."

Winter's voice trembled a little with buried anger. "I'm not sure what you **think** you're implying, but I've heard _enough_."

"Oh, I've heard too. I heard ol' Ironwood finally turned his back on Ozpin."

Weiss looked toward her sister. "Ozpin?"

Winter gently pushed Weiss back. "Weiss, it's time for you to go."

"What?"

Qrow verbally lashed out again. "Listen to big sister, Weiss. She'll protect ya. Just like Atlas is gonna protect all of us, huh?"

"If you won't hold your tongue." Winter drew her saber. "Then I will gladly remove it for you!"

"Alright, then." Qrow pushed his bangs back. "Come take it."

There was a second of silence, and then Winter charged forward. Her blow never landed. Ma'rahka, having seen where this was going, flung out two Paralysis spells, one for each would-be combatant. The spells connected, and both Qrow and Winter dropped to the ground, stiff as boards. "Phew. Weiss, help me carry them to someone in charge."

When she walked up and awkwardly lifted Winter onto her shoulder, she asked in a whisper, "What was that?"

Picking up Qrow, Ma'rahka whispered back, "Paralysis spell. It'll wear off in about fifteen minutes."

Weiss led the way.

At that moment, Ruby arrived. "What happened?"

Weiss gestured to Ma'rahka's package. "That crazy guy tried to attack my sister!"

"Oh no! Who would do such a–" She stopped when she saw who it was. "That's my uncle!"

Ma'rahka sighed. "Yes, it's your uncle. He baited Winter into attacking him, probably to make her and Atlas look bad. He was ranting about how he thought Atlas betrayed us."

"What did you do to him?"

Weiss, mindful of the crowd around them, gave a tactful, partially true reply. "Ma'rahka used his Semblance to paralyze both him and Winter before they could hurt each other. Also, I now see where your recklessness comes from."

"Oh." Ruby joined them without another word.

Along the way, they ran into General Ironwood, who grabbed Winter, and Ozpin and Glynda, who took Qrow. Despite wanting to stay with their relatives, the kids were told that there was going to be a meeting that was adults, only, and they dispersed to do whatever else they wanted for the rest of the day.

* * *

Lejule leaned against one of the pillars that divided the window in Ozpin's office. When the entry chime sounded, he looked toward the elevator. In walked Ozpin, Glynda, and General Ironwood, accompanied by someone he did not recognize.

A dirty white shirt, black pants, a tattered red cape, soot-gray hair, a several-day beard, and dark red eyes all told of someone who had lived a hard life mostly away from the niceties of civilization. Those eyes, however, flicked around the room in a way that missed nothing. Before long, they settled on the khajiit. "Who are you?"

Ozpin started to answer. "He–"

"My name is Lejule. I'm not from Remnant, but I am on your side." He sniffed the air. "You met my son, I can smell."

The headmasters and Glynda stared at the cat, clearly not expecting him to have so readily divulged that much about himself. The new arrival, however, actually laughed. "You mean that little paralyzer? Yeah, I met him. As for you not being from Remnant?"

"I come from a world where magic is commonplace, and people can speak with gods often. One of said gods felt I was needed here. So, here I am."

The man pulled a flask out of a back pocket. "Welp, that story's too crazy to be a lie. Must be true."

* * *

Ozpin sighed in exasperation and walked over to his desk. "Qrow, please put that away. Also, why are you here?"

Ironwood nodded. "After going dark for weeks. You can't just drop out of contact like that in the field."

"And why not?" All eyes turned to Lejule. "I often worked best on my own."

Qrow smirked. "I think we might become good friends." He turned back to the others. "You sent me to gather intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you: Our enemy is here."

It was James's turn to smile. "And captured."

"Oh really? Well then, show me."

Ironwood pulled out his scroll. "Blue-2, I need access to the prisoner."

The nervousness pouring out the other end was palpable. "I was just about to call you, sir. The prisoner…escaped."

"What?! What do you mean 'escaped?'"

An audible gulp preceded the next words. "Exactly that. She was in there a couple of hours ago, and now she's, somehow, not."

A deep growl that shook everything in the room that wasn't nailed down drew everyone's attention to Lejule. Fire mixed with electrical sparks wafted from his hands. "You should have let me kill her when I had the chance. But, no, you said that it would be better if she 'faced justice the Remnant way' in your courts." He stomped toward the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

When the cat turned and gazed back at them, his eyes had turned pale blue and his pupils had narrowed to reptilian slits. "I am going to find where she could have gone, and then I will destroy her down to her soul. Enjoy your attempts at keeping everyone 'safe.'"

After the elevator doors shut behind him, Qrow commented about the incident. "Well, he seems to be a bundle of joy. He's got a point, though."

Ozpin sighed in defeat. "Yes. I suppose he does." _I should have seen this coming._

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those who haven't figured it out, in the Elder Scrolls lore, stalhrim is a magically hardened ice. Ma'rahka is a mage, while Weiss is RWBY's resident Ice Queen.**


	15. Chapter 15

Emerald sat on her bed in her "team's" dorm room, contemplating what to do next, when a commotion drew her attention to her partner, Mercury. He was currently tearing his side of the room apart, apparently searching for something. "Hey, Em–"

"What did you lose, this time?"

Ignoring her barb, he continued his question. "Could you call my Scroll? I was sure I left it here."

She rolled her eyes and reached into her back pocket. "Huh?" She stood up and patted herself down. "What the–? Mine's gone, too. And I know I put it in my pocket this morning."

"Looking for these?" The two partners-in-crime looked toward the dorm door, where Jasiir stood, two Scrolls held like playing cards in his hand.

"How did you–?"

"Shut up." Having only heard that tone once before from the Faunus Professor, Emerald did as he said. "Good. Now, here is what will happen next. You will tell me either what rock your boss, Cinder, is currently hiding under, or the passwords to your Scrolls and I will have Atlas use your recent conversations to figure it out."

"Or, we tell you nothing, force our way past you, and leave." Mercury dropped into his combat stance.

In a way that sent a shiver of uneasiness down the thief's spine, the cat did nothing except tilt his head, shut the door, and say, "That may be a little difficult." She reached for her carbines. "Without your weapons. ZUN HAAL VIIK!"

A wave of energy shot out from the Faunus and yanked her guns away from her hands even as she was drawing them. However, what was an annoyance for Emerald was absolutely devastating for Mercury; as his weapons were built into his prosthetic legs, his legs ended up being literally ripped out from underneath him. As he dropped to his bloody stumps, Jasiir reached out with some sort of energy field and pulled all four weapons to him. "Hmm. Metal legs. I honestly did not expect that."

Emerald rushed over to her partner and tried to stop the flow of blood. She looked up at the Professor, ice running down her spine and through her blood at the emotionless tone in his voice. "Please, help him. I'll tell you everything I know."

The cat knelt down beside her. "I know you will, and you will tell the truth, because you will not have a choice. GOL HAH!"

If she could vomit, Emerald most certainly would have at the feeling that overcame her. It was as if the controls of her body were wrenched from her conscious mind, leaving her a passenger in her own body. Nothing she willed her body to do happened.

"Now, where is Cinder Fall?"

"I don't know. She went to a White Fang hideout, but she hasn't told us which one."

"What is her next step?"

"Again, she hasn't told us. However, she does want to cause enough chaos to let her slip past any defenses surrounding the Fall Maiden and finish collecting her power. The original plan was for us to manipulate the Tournament for reasons she didn't disclose."

"Hmm." He stood up. "Thank you for being so helpful, Miss Sustrai." He created one of his energy blades. "Deactivate your Aura."

"May I say one thing more?" Jasiir glared at her. "I never wanted this."

"None do." Her last sight was of the Professor's weapon flying toward her face, and then everything went black.

* * *

The first thing Blake was aware of was someone shaking her awake. "Wha–?" As her sleepy bleariness cleared up, she realized who it was. "Professor?" He was fully armed and armored.

Lejule handed her a bottle full of green liquid, a stamina potion if she remembered correctly. "Drink this and come with me."

She popped the cork and downed the contents of the bottle, which didn't taste nearly as bad as Yang's claimed it did. New energy surging through her system, she followed the Khajiit into the hallway. "What's going on?"

He looked over his shoulder at her. "I found a lead on Cinder, the one who Ruby and I fought the night of the dance, but I'll need your help." He sighed and returned his gaze forward. "And Typhon's."

Blake halted in her tracks. "Wait. Does this involve the White Fang?"

Lejule stopped and turned toward her, smiling. "Clever girl. We can talk more when we're on our way."

"I…I'd rather not."

He stared at her for a few seconds before nodding. "Fair enough. I cannot force you to come, but consider this. If you had the opportunity to save lives, would you run away from it?" He walked away. "Food for thought, as the saying goes."

Blake stood and gawked at Lejule's retreating form for a moment, and then she clenched her fists and ran after him.

* * *

Ebon Typhon was not happy. It was past midnight, he had been sound asleep, and then the damn tiger Faunus professor dragged him out of bed, needing the snake's help for something. Now, he was waiting by the statue that dominated the school's central courtyard for the professor to finish getting ready. Clanking and clacking footsteps drew his attention to one of the dormitory buildings, where he saw Professor Daytha walking toward him, followed by… "Why is _she_ here?"

"Both you and Blake were in the White Fang. I need your help to track those bastards down. The person we're looking for is hiding amongst them."

"And what makes you think we can help?" Blake adjusted her bow.

"Surely you remember some of the old locations where the White Fang would gather. Even if we do not find our prey there, we will find evidence that will eventually lead us to her."

Typhon laughed. "Come on and wake up! This isn't a video game or a comic book. This is reality. Two students and a teacher against the entire White Fang? We'll get slaughtered."

"Two students and a god incarnate. I am not from Remnant, but from a world of magic called Nirn. Zu'u dovahkiin, dragonborn, son of Akatosh, God of the Sun and Time. Now, we should not tarry; Cinder will not. Blake, Typhon, where will we go first?"

* * *

Emerald awoke, slowly. "Ugh, my head." She was in her "team's" dorm, but she couldn't remember how she wound up unconscious on the floor. The green-haired girl racked her brain for her most recent memories. Last she could recall, Mercury had lost his Scroll, then Professor Daytha had come in and revealed that he had stolen both her and Mercury's Scrolls, demanding that they tell him where Cinder had gone, and then…there was nothing. No memory, whatsoever. "Agh, why can't I remember?"

"Remember what?"

Emerald looked over toward the door and saw the team's master of disguise standing there with her head tilted in confusion. "Neo? What are you doing here? Also, when did you stop being mute?" She hadn't seen Neopolitan since the day after Cinder's arrest.

"Jasiir healed my voice box. Oh, speaking of…" She reached into her false dress and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "He asked me to give you this. Said he wanted to give it to you yesterday evening, but found that you were asleep."

The dark-skinned girl glanced at the window "But, why couldn't he give me it today?"

"He told me that he had to leave Beacon and Vale for some business of some kind last night. Wouldn't say what."

Still only half awake, Emerald could only muster a half-hearted "Whatever," as she accepted the paper and opened it up. It was a letter from the professor. Neo excused herself while the green-haired girl read.

" _If you are reading this, then I was successful and you have physically recovered. The information you provided will help me bring down Cinder for the good of everyone. However, the method I used was something I could not let anyone else know, so I had to…modify your memories to remove that part_." That explained the gap in what she could remember. " _Unfortunately, your partner fought back, and I was forced to kill him. Do not bother looking, for his body is already gone_."

Despite the instruction, Emerald looked over at the spot where she remembered Mercury had been standing. Sure enough, there was no trace of the boy, himself, but a scorch mark on the carpet hinted at what had happened. After blinking back her tears and swallowing down a batch of bile, she returned her attention to the letter.

" _You, however, I let live. I am not often merciful to my enemies, but I sense that there may still be some good in you. If I am right, then, please, help the innocent in whatever way you can. If not, leave Vale and never return_."

Emerald sat there for some time, contemplating what she should do. Finally, she stood up and walked out the door, ready to begin anew.

* * *

Aela crumpled up the letter her husband had left her. Yet again, he was running off on some sort of adventure, and she and their children were being left behind. That behavior was starting to become annoying. Yes, he'd said that he was leaving them in Vale for their own safety, but he could have at least given them some warning or a choice of whether to come or not.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Ma'isha walked into the room, seemingly looking for something. " _Fado_ , where is Ma'rahka?"

The redhead pondered for a moment. It was true that he hadn't been spending much time with the rest of the family, recently. However, Aela did know one person he **was** spending time with. "I don't know at the moment, but I would ask your girlfriend."

Her daughter blushed. "Why her?"

"She is a shield-sister to the girl your brother is in a relationship with. They should know where each member of their team is."

"Almost as wise as _ahnurr_. Thank you, _fado_." Ma'isha ran out before Aela could retaliate.

The Nord shook her head. "For good or ill, she is our daughter. She has certainly learned our sense of humor."

* * *

Ma'rahka lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip, his first sip of coffee ever. Warm and bitter, it certainly was not to his taste. Still, he endeavored to finish the cup so as not to disappoint the lady in front of him.

"So, how is it?"

He looked up and across the table at Weiss. She had taken him to a café for lunch. He put down the cup. "Well, I will admit that coffee is nothing like what I have drunk before. It…well." He bowed his head. "Sorry."

She nodded. "No, I understand. Coffee isn't for everyone. Blake and Sun, for instance, prefer tea." She sipped from her own cup. "So, what do you usually drink?"

Ma'rahka sat back. "Mostly milk and ale."

Weiss nearly choked on her drink. "What? You drank alcohol back home?"

"Skyrim has no legal limit on drinking. Besides, we don't have the same ability to purify water that Remnant does, so alcohol is one of the few germ-free drinks that we have."

Nodding, the heiress replied, "Okay. I can see that. Remnant had the same problem centuries ago."

"How did you deal with the diseases back then?"

"Well, our Auras would fight off most diseases, but the others were more often than not fatal. It wasn't until modern medicine that diseases became more of a nuisance than a threat. You?"

"For those who can afford or know how to make them, we use potions that cure any disease. Otherwise, our bodies either fight off the disease, or we die."

Weiss was silent for a moment. "That sounds so sad."

"Yeah. Still, it is quite difficult to catch a disease that could kill us in the first place. The usual vector is by animal attack, although some of the traps used to weaken trespassers in various caves, forts, and ruins are coated in filth to infect the victim. Not pleasant."

"Is there anything pleasant where you come from?"

He chuckled. "Well, for one thing, we have no Grimm, so we don't have to worry about civilization being destroyed on a daily basis. In fact, only a few cities in Skyrim even have walls, and those are more to keep out bandits and enemy soldiers than monsters."

"Wait. But, if there are no Grimm, why did your father say that he fought monsters on an almost-daily basis? What did he fight?"

"Oh, I never said that there are no monsters. They just aren't as prevalent as the Grimm. People are the most common problem. That's actually one of the few positive things about the Grimm: They caused the peoples of Remnant to unite in order to fight a common enemy rather than fight amongst themselves. Outside of the cities, bandits and wild animals are common threats to travelers, but their numbers are never enough to endanger the cities, themselves. The more powerful monsters, such as trolls and feral vampires and werewolves, lurk in the shadows away from civilization. The most dangerous beasts are the rogue dragons, but they are few in number since my father destroyed most of them."

"What do you mean 'destroyed?'"

"That…is something you will have to ask my father." He looked down at the half-empty cup of coffee. "Weiss, there is something that I am confused about." His gaze turned up toward her. "I feel as though you are conflicted about our relationship."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, when I presented the Amulet of Mara to you, you said that you weren't ready for it, but you have since invited me to lunch twice. I don't understand."

Weiss reached out and grabbed his hand. "Ma'rahka, romance here on Remnant is slower than it is in Skyrim. In the Kingdoms, we can take our time and see if we truly like each other." Then she noticed his hand in hers and blushed. "I realize that I rushed into a relationship too quickly with Neptune, and he dumped me at the dance. I don't want to get burned like that, again." She gently withdrew her hand. "That doesn't mean that we can't hang out and pursue our relationship."

"Oh. I see. My apologies. I was raised in Skyrim, so I am too used to the Nord way of doing things."

"It's alright. I can understand the culture clash." She finished her coffee. "So, would you like to have lunch again tomorrow?"

He smiled. "I would. However, not at a place where the main drink is coffee. Forgive me, but I cannot stand its taste."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: From this point, the story will diverge into two directions: 1) The hunt for Cinder; 2) The rest of the Tournament.**

 **I'm pretty sure that the scene between Ma'rahka and Weiss is not that good, as I am probably one of the most romantically dense people you will ever find.**

 **I do have one question for you all: What should Aela and Ma'rahka's Semblances be? I already have figured out Ma'isha's and hinted at Lejule's.**


	16. Chapter 16

As Coco and Yatsuhashi's pictures rotated into place, Oobleck announced, "And the randomization process…is complete!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, your Doubles Tournament Line-up! Our first match is Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon versus Jasper and Kanet of Shade."

That made Ma'rahka sit up and pay attention.

Cross-referencing the pictures, the boy, Jasper, was wearing a dark red cuirass with matching pauldrons and kneepads, but no other armor, and the girl, Kanet, was wearing a red vest over a white shirt with brown pants. Most notably, both were dark-skinned and human. Jasper's weapon of choice was a shotgun of some kind, while Kanet wielded what looked like an unremarkable sword tied to a rope spooled around her left arm.

Ma'rahka was able to see that the girl was wearing some variety of necklace or amulet, but he was far too far away to determine what it was. "Hey, Ruby, what does Kanet's necklace look like, to you?"

The eagle-eyed sniper leaned forward and squinted, he guessed for the best possible view. "Um, it looks a bit like a black metal heart with a carved bird and some sort of blue gemstone set within it. Why?"

The cat, however, ignored her, leaning forward. "Ma'isha, did she say what I think she said?"

"Black heart, carved bird, blue gem? Yep." The boisterous hammer-wielder's voice was dull and distant.

"By the Nine."

Weiss looked back and forth between the two. "Okay, I'm confused. What is that necklace's significance?"

"It is an Amulet of Kynareth, the Goddess of Nature for my world." Ma'rahka turned back to the combat area. "How did one get here?"

"I think the only way you'll find that out is if you ask them about it, later."

"If I can find them, I think I will."

The terrain finished setting up, with four biomes: savannah, forest, rocky river, and city ruins. Oobleck announced the count-down for this match. "3, 2, 1, begin!"

Jasper and Kanet rushed forward, while Yatsuhashi braced to intercept the charge and Coco opened up her handbag into its minigun form and opened fire.

In response to the barrage, Jasper pulled a length of water from a pouch by his side and put it in front of the bullets. The high-velocity rounds shattered upon striking the liquid shield, rendering them impotent. When there was the slightest slackening in the fire, he spun and brought the water around in a whip of sorts, knocking the weapon out of the fashionista's hands and knocking her into the river.

"Coco!" The shout was all Yatsuhashi could do as Kanet bore down on him, her sword out of its sheath and whirling on its rope in a way similar to when Blake used Gambol Shroud. Although he was able to block every strike, he couldn't find an opening to counter-attack.

Ma'rahka, however, was more enthralled by the shimmering energy that seemed to follow Kanet's blade with every movement. "No way. That cannot be what I think it is."

Ruby looked between him and the dark-skinned girl. "What can't?"

"I…I _think_ that that is another artifact from my world: the Soul Sword, not seen since the disappearance of its wielder, Cyrus the Restless, in the early Third Era." He cupped his chin. "That would explain a lot about Kanet, actually."

Weiss leaned toward him. "What do you mean?"

Ma'rahka turned toward her and channeled his various teachers. "Cyrus was a member of a dark-skinned race of Men from my world. After his role in helping his homeland get a strong voice in Tiber Septim's Empire, he wandered off and disappeared into the mists of time. Seeing what might be his weapon and an Amulet of Kynareth, combined with the fact that their bearer shares the name of a flower native to a place Cyrus is known to have been, I theorize that he might have somehow ended up here in Remnant and started a new life and had a family."

* * *

In the arena, Coco was dodging as many of Jasper's attacks as she could and returning fire with a backup handgun she had acquired on the advice of Professor Daytha. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Yatsu forcing his opponent to fall back into the forest biome. She ducked behind a boulder and snuck a peek at the scoreboard. Her Aura level was at forty seven percent, Yatsuhashi's at seventy eight, Jasper's at sixty seven, and Kanet's at ninety four.

Another blast of water forced her out of cover, and she unloaded the rest of the clip at her opponent as she ran. Considering the fact that he was standing in the water of the geyser fields, he just summoned a wall of water thick enough to stop her bullets. Still, the maneuver allowed her to reach and reclaim her minigun. She kept running, hoping to reach the city biome where Jasper's water usage could hopefully be minimized.

Then a tendril of water wrapped around her waist. "Didn't think I would let you go so easily, did you? Get over here!" He yanked her off her feet.

Thinking quickly, Coco twisted around and smashed her weapon against the side of his head when she arrived. She followed it up with a burst of fire from her weapon that ravenously tore into his Aura.

He recovered and turned her into a water-powered rocket, using a column of water to blast her out of the arena. Before she flew out, she unleashed a last volley and heard two elimination buzzers sound off at once.

* * *

Yatsuhashi grimaced at the two buzzers, as that meant that it was up to him to win the match, and he knew that his opponent's Aura was in better shape than his. That was further reinforced when he was forced to use his sword to deflect another flurry of strikes from Kanet's rope-mounted sword.

Suddenly, her offensive slackened and she darted into the forest. Warily, he waited outside the tree-line, wondering what his foe was doing. His eyes widened when the nearest tree bent over and its branches batted him into the woodland.

With well-honed reflexes, he bounced back to his feet and tried to prepare for whatever his opponent's next attack would be. What he certainly was not expecting was for the grass he was standing on to grow and wrap around his feet, trapping him in place. He only spared a single glance at his feet, but it was still enough time for Kanet to rush by and slash his chest with her sword.

After carefully listening, Yatsuhashi swung his sword back to block her attempted backstab. However, that was his last hurrah, as she made a tree spin around and bludgeon him with its branches, obliterating his Aura.

Port offered his commentary about the end of match. "Oh, and with that final blow, Kanet and Jasper are victorious!"

Oobleck chimed in. "Yes, and it is an amazing upset. Coco and Yatsuhashi were certainly the favorites to win this one, but Kanet and Jasper manipulated their way to snatching away victory."

* * *

Ma'rahka was frustrated. After the match, he had tried to find and speak with either Kanet or Jasper (preferably Kanet), but they had managed to leave before he could. Now, he was following Weiss, who had invited him to have lunch with her sister. "Cheer up. There is still a week left in the Tournament. I'm sure you'll find them and get your answers before then."

The cat merely grumbled in half acceptance. A few minutes later, they arrived at a fancy-looking marble structure. "I have seen lesser buildings in the Imperial City. How–?"

"This was one of my grandfather's summer homes. It's rarely used, now."

She trailed off as the front door opened and a servant stepped out. "Please, follow me, Miss Schnee and Mister Wulfson."

Weiss bowed her head in respect, while Ma'rahka hung his head for a different reason. "Gods, being called 'Mister Wulfson' makes me feel overly old," he muttered under his breath.

The heiress leaned in close. "At least you aren't being referred to as 'Master.'"

He laughed. "Oh, gods, that would be worse. Thank you." He decided not to tell her that, according to the Mages' College rankings, he was technically a Master in the schools of destruction, conjuration, and alteration magic.

The servant stopped at the back door and eased it open, revealing Winter, still wearing her Atlas uniform, sitting at a small round table with two empty seats across from her. On the table was a plate bearing strawberries and pastries. "Through here, please."

Weiss nodded at the man. "Thank you." She walked outside and curtsied to her sister. "I'm honored to accept your invitation, Winter." Ma'rahka simply, and wordlessly, bowed.

The elder sister chuckled. "You can leave the formality, dear sister." She gestured toward the vacant chairs. "Sit." Her tone made the word sound more like an offer than an order. When the younger pair had sat down, she continued. "I see that you brought your boyfriend with you."

"Of course. I believed that you'd want to get to know him, after all."

Winter smiled. "You know me well. So, Ma'rahka, tell me about yourself."

A pit formed in Ma'rahka's stomach as he knew that the cover backstory his family had developed with the help of Ozpin and Ironwood would not stand up to any scrutiny by this Atlas native. So, he decided to skirt around it. "Well, my father brought us here from a little settlement outside the kingdom of Atlas a few weeks ago, after he had established himself here in Vale. I grew up fighting monsters and studying the words and techniques of scholars in order to be a better fighter. Although, my father was the one who taught me the most. Since moving to Vale, I spend most of my time studying and practicing my abilities." He looked at Weiss. "Recently, I have fallen in love with your sister, and I wish to spend the rest of my life with her."

As Weiss blushed, Winter chuckled and narrowed her eyes. "Fascinating. Now, why don't you tell me the _truth_?"

Both of the kids turned toward her, stunned. "What do you mean? He did."

"One of my jobs in the Atlas military is to ferret out lies. With you, Ma'rahka, everything you've said about your backstory, with the exception of your father training you, was a lie. So, please, tell me the truth. I can't protect Weiss from what I don't know."

He opened his mouth to retort, but sighed as he realized that she was right. "I am not from Atlas, or even Remnant. I am from the, I guess you would call it 'kingdom,' of Skyrim on the world called Nirn. It is a world of magic, without Grimm. Were the people as unified there as they are here, it would also be a very peaceful place. Alas, bandits plague the land, and wars are common occurrences. Still, one does not have to live within a city's walls to be safe. Because of the absence of Grimm, there are also no huntsmen or huntresses beyond those who hunt game animals for food.

"I was the son of traveling merchants who came to Skyrim fifteen years ago." He blinked back his tears as he remembered. "My father was killed by bandits twelve years ago, and my mother died of illness a year later. I was sent to the only orphanage in the region, a despicable place called Honorhall. A year after that was when my current father, Jasiir, adopted me and my step-sister, Ma'isha." He mentally slapped himself in the head. "But she is not to be called that in public, where she is to be referred to as Sapphire, instead."

The elder Schnee nodded. "I'll oblige."

"Thank you. Anyway, my father and uncle, Ge'Vaudan, instructed me on how to wield various forms of magic until I was sixteen, at which point I was sent to the College of Winterhold to study with the master mages there as a supplement to what Jasiir and Ge'Vaudan had taught me. That was three years ago."

"Fascinating. At some point, but not right now, I would like to know more about the magic of your world. However, at this time, I'd like to know how you and my sister got together."

Weiss spoke up. "Let's just say that Ma'rahka doesn't have many friends here, and I didn't want him to be alone in this new world."

Winter leaned in. "It's _you_ who doesn't want to be alone." When Weiss sputtered, she added, "It's all right, dear sister. I understand how you feel. Part of why I invited you here was to say goodbye."

Weiss' head snapped up with the same expression of a kicked puppy. "You're… leaving?"

Winter nodded. "Yes. I was merely needed to oversee the transport of additional units to Vale. Our last shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a run-in with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate that those Paladins were still in the prototype stage. Otherwise, your team may not have fared so well." When Weiss' countenance fell, she took her sister's hand. "Weiss, you've done…well…out here on your own. You should be proud." Humor tingeing her voice, she continued, "I'll be honest, it was quite amusing to see father's face the day you left for Beacon."

Weiss crossed her arms and sat straighter. "I can't wait to show him what I've learned."

Winter tilted her head. "Oh?" She crossed her fingers and leaned forward. "And what do you think you've learned?"

Weiss' jaw dropped. "What do you mean? I've been getting better and better with my glyphs. I've even started time dilation."

"And what of your summoning?"

"Well, Ma'rahka's actually been helping me with that."

"Truly? How?"

The cat sighed. "Thank you for making me the center of attention, Weiss. To answer your question, Winter, one of the six categories of magic is Conjuration, effectively equivalent to your summoning. I taught Weiss how to subtly infuse her summoning glyphs with magic to shore up that portion of her Semblance until she can do it entirely on her own."

"Hmm." Winter stood up, the food on the table left uneaten and forgotten. "Show me what you can do."

* * *

On the Beacon campus, Ma'isha was observing a very different familial interaction between Ruby, Yang, and their Uncle Qrow. A portable projector was set up on the bookshelf that sat underneath the window of Team RWBY's dorm room. The holographic projection showed two black-clad warriors dueling with swords, while Ruby and Qrow controlled the warriors' movements with their Scrolls.

Ruby leaned forward, unnecessarily. "YOU'LL NEVER BEAT ME, OLD MAN!"

Qrow chuckled. "Pfft. You're nothing but talk, kid."

Yang pumped her fist. "You can do it, Ruby!"

Then Qrow's character beheaded Ruby's, and the game announced, "Soaring Ninja Wins! Total Annihilation!"

Ruby covered her head with her arms. "Ouch."

Her uncle leaned toward her. "And by the way, don't ever call me 'old.'"

Her sister didn't treat her much better, sliding over and knocking away Ruby hard enough to send the Scroll flying into Yang's hands. "My turn."

When the players had selected their characters, the voiceover was, "A new challenger approaches. Fight!"

As he focused on the match, Qrow asked his nieces, "Now, where was I?"

From her position, lying on Yang's bed, Ma'isha did her best to remember. "I believe you were telling them about a past mission."

Ruby recovered from being rudely shoved away. "Yep; your last mission, specifically."

"Right, right. I'd come across a small village in the swamps west of Mistral. Right off the bat, I knew something wasn't right."

"What were you doing there?" Ruby sounded completely mystified.

"I needed information. Tired from battling Grimm along the way, I decided to start my search at the town's inn. The place was crawling with lowlifes and thugs, and even a few Huntsmen who I could only assume had been hired by less than reputable people for less than respectable jobs. And that's when it happened."

"What happened?"

"I was defeated…by the mere sight…" He smirked. "…Of the innkeeper's skirt length!"

Yang, thrown off by the sudden mental image, could only watch in horror as her character was beheaded just as Ruby's had been.

"Soaring Ninja Wins! Total Annihilation!"

She grabbed one of Ruby's pillows and threw it at her uncle, who reacted fast enough to catch it. "You. Are. The worst!"

Ma'isha decided to add in her experience. "Where this one is from, no innkeeper would be able to wear something revealing; it's just too cold."

Still, she joined in on Qrow and Ruby's laughter. He playfully punched Yang on the shoulder. "Best two out of three?"

"Ready? Fight!"

As their rematch started, Ruby walked over to Weiss' bed and sat on it. "So, Uncle Qrow, did you get in trouble for nearly starting that fight with Winter?"

He waved it off. "Nah. Me and Oz go way back. We're cool."

Yang scoffed. "Yeah. 'Cool' for an old guy."

Qrow paused the game and pointedly looked at her. "Not. Funny."

Then Ruby seemed to remember something. "Hey, so, what are you doing here, anyway? I thought Dad said you'd be away on a mission for, like, ever."

He resumed the game. "Well, a professional Huntsman like myself is expected to get results as soon as possible."

Ruby nodded. "Yeahhh. I get that. We're pretty much pros, too."

Loud guffawing drew the attention of the other three to Ma'isha. Wiping tears from her eyes, she said, "Apologies, but you are nowhere near professionals. **I'm** not, and I have been out in the world for longer than your team has been in school."

Yang paused the game, this time. "Hey! You were there with us." She turned toward Qrow. "We totally stopped a terrorist plot to get the Grimm to invade Vale while you were gone."

Her uncle cocked his head. "Funny. I heard that you all stopped a train, and you 'almost' caught the mastermind, but he got away."

"Soaring Ninja Wins! Total Annihilation!"

Yang pouted at her second loss in a row as Qrow leaned toward her. "Buuut they don't give out medals for 'almost.'"

Ruby argued valiantly for her respect. "They do, and they're called 'silver!'"

Yang joined in. "And Roman Torchwick hasn't been seen, anywhere, and crime's been down, ever since."

He tilted his head to the side, and Ma'isha sensed a lecture of wisdom coming, so she leaned in close. "Sure, you may be _acting_ like huntresses, but you're not _thinking_ like one. You really think one team and their friends could end all crime in the Kingdom?"

Ruby looked down at her hands as she poked her fingers against each other. "Well…I mean, I did until you said that."

"Violence hasn't dropped since Roman disappeared. It's _stopped_. Completely." He scythed his hand to the side to emphasize the point. "No White Fang activity anywhere around the city. They may be hiding, but they're using the cover to prepare something, something big." He sighed. "That's what Ironwood can't get through that thick, metal head of his."

Yang tilted her head in confusion. "You…know the General?"

A scoff. "Hey, I know everybody, to some extent. Well, everybody who was here before I left. Remember that you're talking to a member of the coolest team to ever graduate Beacon." He pulled out a photograph and showed it to the girls, sighing in nostalgia. "Team STRQ. That's when I met your parents. We were pretty well-known back in the day."

"Wait." Ma'isha slid off the bed and landed next to the man. "Who is that?" She pointed to the raven-haired sword-user second from the right.

"My sister, Raven. Why?"

"This one…this one is sure she's seen her. Somewhere." She wanted him to fill in the blanks, for she knew exactly where she had seen that woman: on the train, just before they had entered the car that had saved their lives. Ma'isha had been the last to go down and had seen the same red coat and massive sword sheath. The face had been covered by a very elaborate white mask, but she was sure that it was the same woman as in the photo.

"Eh, she goes where she wants, when she wants. I haven't seen her in years. She could be anywhere."

Being both Khajiit and werewolf, Ma'isha could smell that he was trying to deceive her; the Branwen siblings had seen each other more recently than that, and he knew where she was. Still, she figured that she couldn't get anything more than that. "Fair enough."

Ruby leaned forward from her seat and decided to change the subject. "I can see what you guys were known for: crummy fashion sense."

Qrow pulled the picture back toward himself. "Hey, we looked good! And I've got a number of _inappropriate_ stories to back that up. But, I'll save those for when you're older."

"Ugh, gross!" Ruby shook her head to clear out the mental image.

He stood up. "Now, I can't hang around you kids all day. You'll cramp my style." He walked over to the door and looked back. "You girls, you're gonna go far. But only if you never stop improving; if you never stop moving forward." His gaze settled on Ma'isha. "Keep my niece safe. I wish you the best of luck with your relationship."

With that, Qrow departed, leaving the blond brawler and the hammer-wielding cat blushing furiously. Ma'isha took Yang's hand. "Ruby, this one believes it would be wise for you to find somewhere else to be. Things may become… _inappropriate_ in here, soon."

A trail of rose petals leading out of the room was the little sister's response. Yang climbed up to her bed. "You know, there's something I haven't asked that I probably should have. What was that thing your dad turned into?"

The Khajiit sprang up and straddled her younger lover. "Want me to show you?" Her blue eyes flashed amber.

"Um. I'm not so sure I want to know, now." The lilac eyes flicked toward the bookshelf on the floor, and the scent of fear wafted off of her.

Ma'isha caressed the girl's chin as she canceled the transformation. "Sorry, Yang. To answer your question, he, mother, and I are werewolves. Blessed by the Daedric Lord of the Hunt, Hircine, we can change our bodies into those of wolf-shaped humanoids. We become stronger, tougher, and faster; perfect engines of death and destruction. Our bloodline means that we can control the wolf; we won't kill everyone around us."

Yang gulped. "That doesn't exactly inspire confidence, Ma'isha."

The cat-girl planted a gentle kiss on Yang's cheek. "Don't worry. This one won't shift forms in front of you. Promise. Now, let's enjoy the rest of the day."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: As an apology for taking so long to get this chapter to you, I decided to make it extra-long.**


	17. Chapter 17

"So, what's your story?"

Lejule looked toward Ebon Typhon after the snake had spoken. "Pardon?"

The Faunus glared at him from where he sat on the other side of their campfire. "You heard me. You told us you're from another world, one called Nirn, so I want to know your story."

"If you wish to have an answer, you will have to be more specific with your questions." The Khajiit leaned back against one of the surrounding trees.

Ebon sighed. "Fine. What are you, really?"

"Interesting way to start." He sat up straight. "Where I am from, I am called a Khajiit. We are a race of cat-folk that hails from a region that is half desert, somewhat like Vacuo, and half jungle. Next?"

"What is Nirn like?"

Lejule leaned forward. "Now _that_ is much more interesting. You would call it a world of fantasy, with magic, dragons, and a plethora of races of various kinds. Additionally, and this may be the most difficult concept for you to understand…" He looked up into the sky. "Nirn has two moons that are fully intact. We Khajiit revere the moons, named Masser and Secunda, as the physical remnants of the Trickster God of Creation. This reverence is so heartfelt that it even affects our physical forms."

Blake walked over to the pair. "What do you mean by that?"

"There are sixteen forms a Khajiit can have, determined by what phases of the moons they are born under." He put his hand on his heart. "This form is an Ohmes-raht." He gestured toward Blake. "You could call yourself an Ohmes, and, with some coaching, none would be the wiser."

Typhon perked up. "Wait. Faunus on Nirn would be treated as normal?"

Lejule tilted his head from side to side. "Eh, the cat Faunus would, but Nirn has no analogues for the other Faunus varieties."

The two Faunus' countenances fell. "So, you mentioned a 'plethora of races.' What are they?"

"The races of Nirn are roughly divided into three categories: Man, Mer, and Beastfolk. The races of Man are the Nords, brash, cold-hardened warriors native to the northern reaches of the central continent; Imperials, charismatic folk native to the heartland of the world; Redguards, dark-skinned swordsmen without equal who hail from Nirn's equivalent of Vacuo; and the Bretons, descendants of ancient, now-extinct, races of Man and Mer. No better natural mages can be found among Men.

"Mer is the collective term for the races of Nirn's elves. The Altmer, or High Elves, are flat-out the best mages of any race on Nirn, but they are very haughty and love to flaunt their supposed superiority. The Dunmer, Dark Elves, live in the harsh western country dominated by volcanoes; their nobles can be worse than the Altmer, but the common folk are good people. The forest-dwelling Bosmer, Wood Elves, are so attuned to their homeland that they will not harm even a single blade of grass, not even for food; the necessity to hunt for all their food means that the Bosmer are the finest archers around. Finally, there are the Orsimer, also known as Orcs. They are gruff, hardy people whose berserker rages are legendary for allowing them to outlast any foe.

"There are two main races of Beastfolk: Khajiit and Argonians. The Argonians are a race of lizard-folk native to a vast swampland. They are the world's best guerilla warriors, bar none."

So it continued for more than an hour, Lejule regaling Blake and Typhon with stories of Nirn and its two continents, Tamriel and Akavir, and the various inhabitants. He avoided tales of his personal adventures; he saw no need for them to know that. Yet. At the end of it all, Ebon sighed. "Do you think, when this is all over, we could come with you? When you go back."

Lejule buried his face in the crook of his elbow and sighed. "It is more a question of 'if' I go back rather than 'when.' A god of my world sent me here, so another god would have to decide to send me home." He shook his head. "And I do not know whether any of the other gods of my world even know of Remnant, let alone whether they would take an interest in a mere four wayward souls."

Ebon lay down and stretched out by the fire. "Maybe you could pray and hope that one of them takes notice of you." He scoffed. "Didn't work for me; maybe I was praying to the wrong god."

Deciding to lighten the suddenly somber mood, Blake asked, "Professor, I believe I've heard the notes of some string instrument coming from your office."

Welcoming the distraction, the Khajiit reached into his satchel and withdrew his lute and strummed a few chords. "Is this what you heard?" The cat Faunus nodded. "Is there a particular tune you wish to hear? I warn you that I am not well-versed in the songs of Remnant."

Typhon waved a hand non-committedly. "Play what you want."

Blake, however, was a little more specific. "I…would like to hear something from your world."

Lejule nodded. "That I can do." He plucked the strings of the lute and gently sang:

 _Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,_

 _Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!_

 _Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nus than zindro zaan,_

 _Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!_

 _Huzrah nu, kul do od, wah aan bok lingrah vod,_

 _Ahrk fin tey, boziik fun, do fin gein!_

 _Wo lost fron wah ney dov ahrk fin reyliik do jul,_

 _Voth aan suleyk wah ronit faal krein!_

 _Ahrk fin zul, rok drey kod, nau tol morokei frod,_

 _Rul lot Taazokaan motaad voth kein!_

 _Sahrot Thu'um, med aan tuz, vey zeim hokoron pah,_

 _Ol fin Dovahkiin komeyt ok rein!_

 _Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,_

 _Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!_

 _Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nus than zindro zaan,_

 _Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!_

 _Ahrk fin Kel lost prodah, do ved viin ko fin krah,_

 _Tol fod zeymah win kein meyz fundein!_

 _Alduin, feyn do jun, kruziik vokun staadnau,_

 _Voth aan bahlok wah diivon fin lein!_

 _Nuz aan sul, fent alok, fod fin vul dovah nok,_

 _Fen kos nahlot mahfaeraak ahrk ruz!_

 _Paaz Keizaal Fen kos stin nol bein Alduin jot,_

 _Dovahkiin kos fin saviik do muz!_

 _Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,_

 _Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!_

 _Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nus than zindro zaan,_

 _Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!_

When he finished, the expected questions came. "What was that song?"

"Forget the song, what _language_ was that?"

Lejule chuckled. "In order, that was 'The Song of the Dragonborn,' what is basically my prophesized story back in Tamriel, and it was in Dovahzul, the language of dragons."

Blake tilted her head much like a true cat. "Your 'prophesized story?' What do you mean by that?"

He deflected the question with a feigned yawn. "I would tell you, but it is getting late, and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Get to bed, you two." He conjured two skeletal guardians and ordered them to guard the camp, before stowing the lute, snuffing the fire, and settling back against the tree. As he sat there, he turned his gaze back toward Beacon and couldn't help feeling that, somehow, it was being returned.

* * *

Oreonna Delsole sat at her dorm room's window, gazing out into the distance, not really seeing anything. Her mind was quite a ways away in space and time. And her teammates, who were getting ready for bed, noticed.

Maybelle walked up and put her hand on Oreonna's shoulder. "Hey, Oreo, are you alright?"

The cat Faunus shuddered as though startled, but she turned to her team leader with a smile. "Yeah, I'm alright."

She could see that the big cow wasn't convinced, but Maybelle was too nice to pry.

Oran, on the other hand…"No, you're not. I know what you're like when you're alright, and this isn't it."

Nichol nodded from where she sat on her bed. "You have been more distant and taciturn than I ever since Professor Daytha had asked to speak with you. It isn't healthy for you to repress this. If you make a mistake because of distracted thoughts, it could cost you your life."

"She's right. What's eating you, Oreo?"

Oreonna looked down at her hip, the same hip where she hung her sword. When she hesitated to speak, Maybelle did. "If you don't want to tell us–"

The cat shook her head. "No. They're right. I need to get this off my chest." She looked up and her pink eyes met the gazes of her teammates. She took a deep breath and began to recount the previous day's events.

* * *

 _Two angrily hard thumps rattled the door of Team Moon's dorm, causing all four members to jump. Tentatively, Maybelle stood, walked over, and opened the door a crack. "Professor, can I help you?"_

" _I would like to speak with Oreonna, please."_

" _Oh, of course. Oreo–"_

" _In private, please. This is something for her ears, alone." The tone of his voice brooked no argument._

" _Oh. Right." She opened the door fully, and the tiger Faunus walked in. "Oran, Nichol, let's go get some lunch." The others filed out of the room, and Maybelle cast a reassuring glance back at Oreonna before she closed the door._

 _The young Delsole gulped to strengthen her resolve beneath Jasiir's glowering countenance and said, "So, what did you want to talk about?"_

" _Is your mother here?"_

 _She shook her head. "No, I think she's somewhere in town doing errands. Why?"_

 _A pulse of some form of energy rippled down the other Faunus' arm, and the form of a silver-haired boy seemed to materialize out of thin air. With a start, she realized that it was Mercury Black, a visiting Haven student. He was battered and bruised, and his legs were gone from the knees down; only distantly did she note how little blood there was. "He has confessed to being your father's murderer."_

" _What?!"_

" _Don't listen to him, he's insane!"_

 _In response, Jasiir squeezed Mercury's shoulder, and Oreonna winced as she heard fragments of bone slide around beneath the grip. "Now, I want you to tell young Miss Delsole exactly what happened in the Book Trade that day, and why you did what you did."_

" _I don't–" Another squeeze. "Aah! Alright!" He sighed. "That filthy Faunus was trying to flee from the White Fang. Tukson was high-ranking, so he knew just about everything; deployments, command structure, hideouts, the works. He planned to give all of that info to the leaders of Vacuo, who would no doubt pass it on to the other Academies and Councils. It would ruin everything, so he had to die._

" _Our boss ordered Roman to take him out, but the thief took too long, so my partner and I decided to do it ourselves. Good thing, too. Bastard was ready to skip town within the week." He began chuckling. "He thought he could fight us, but it only took one good hit. A bullet from my boot through his head, and he dropped like a crate of his books."_

 _Electricity flowed from the Professor's hand into the assassin boy's body, and grey ripples signaled the depletion of his Aura. He ignored Mercury's groan of pain. "I brought him here in case you or your mother wanted revenge for your father's murder."_

 _Oreonna gulped as she realized what that meant. "I-I can't. I can't kill someone. Huntsman and Huntresses are supposed to protect people!"_

 _A grim smile appeared on Jasiir's face. "The naivety of youth. Protecting people sometimes means–"_

 _A *shink* sound combined with the sickening squelch of a blade striking flesh drew their attention to a steel spike that had pierced the back of Mercury's head and exited through his mouth. His body fell forward, revealing the petite form of Neopolitan, the rapier of her parasol extended and coated in blood and her eyes brown and white. "That you have to kill those who'd otherwise hurt the innocent." Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked to the door._

" _Neo." She turned to glare at the tiger, who pulled a folded piece of paper out of a pocket. "Might I trouble you to give this to Emerald when she awakens? I will be leaving before then."_

 _Another glare, but Oreonna's mother eventually nodded and grabbed the paper before walking out of the room._

 _He looked toward Mercury's body. "Well, I had not quite expected that to happen. I am sorry you had to see that, but I must now dispose of this body. It would not due for a dead man to be found in your dorm room. Fare well."_

 _With that, he picked up the grey-haired corpse, made it vanish, and strode after Neo out into the hallway._

* * *

When she finished with her story, Oreonna looked around at her teammates. Maybelle had left at some point; retching could be heard from the bathroom. Oran looked almost ready to join her, but Nichol had an unreadable expression on her face that seemed to trend strongest toward…understanding?

She stood and reached into the footlocker by her bed. "Thank you for listening. I'm going to go to bed. See you in the morning." She walked to the door to head for the dormitory's communal changing rooms.

When she grabbed the doorknob, Nichol's voice trailed after her. "Don't forget: We have our Doubles fight, tomorrow."

"I know."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now, we finally learn what truly happened to Mercury.**

 **Also, if you fave and follow a story, please leave a review. We writers can't learn what mistakes we may be making if no one points them out; same for what we're doing right. The previous chapter only received a single review over the course of ten days.**

 **ADDENDUM: I find myself in an unfortunate position of needing characters for parts in my story, but my mind is a little too frazzled to actually do the creative work needed to make those characters. So, I have decided that I will be accepting a few OCs.  
Needed parts are: Two teams, of whom one pair from each will be fighting Nora/Pyrrha and Oreonna/Nichol. The full teams will be used later for [SPOILER]. The pair fighting O** **reonna/Nichol must include an interpretation of the unnamed character eliminated by Neo in the canon version of the first chapter of Volume 3 for...r** **easons.**


	18. Special Notice

I will be keeping it short today.

Firstly, I am bumping the rating of this story up to M, as some serious s*** will be going down in the next few chapters. You have been warned; continue reading at your own discretion.

Secondly, I find myself in an unfortunate position of needing characters for parts in my story, but my mind is a little too frazzled to actually do the creative work needed to make those characters. So, I have decided that I will be accepting a few OCs.

Needed parts are: Two teams, of whom one pair from each will be fighting Nora/Pyrrha and Oreonna/Nichol. The full teams will be used later for [SPOILER]. The pair fighting Oreonna/Nichol must include an interpretation of the unnamed character eliminated by Neo in the canon version of the first chapter of Volume 3 for...reasons.


	19. Chapter 18

Ma'isha studied the massive head of Volendrung, checking for any imperfections. An abrasive polishing cloth in her hand stood at the ready to remove those that she found. So far, the cloth had gone unused.

At that moment, Yang walked up to the doorway of the room Lejule's family was staying in. The blonde brawler had Ember Celica looped around her wrists and was wearing her standard garb. "You're up early."

"So are you."

Yang shrugged. "I figured I'd get in a workout before my match today. Want to join in? A spar is always the best workout."

The Khajiit considered for a moment, and then nodded. "This one could use some combat practice." She walked over to a locker where she kept her armor, but she paused when she placed her hand on the lock. With a devious grin, Ma'isha looked back over her shoulder. "Do you want to stay and watch me change?"

A blush tinting her cheeks red, Yang returned an equal grin and shut the door. "Oh yeah."

* * *

When the room reopened a few minutes later, Yang wiped an arm across her forehead to remove a sheen of sweat. Ma'isha had, probably deliberately, changed from her pajamas into her armor as slowly as possible, meaning that the blonde had a long time to study every curve (as well as every other detail) of her lover. Making things a little more frustrating was the fact that the cat had enforced a look but don't touch policy for Yang during the entire process.

"Alright, Ma'i, you're going down in our spar, and then we're going down together on the bed, tonight." She cracked her knuckles to accentuate her point.

The Khajiit girl laughed in return. "When this one wins, I get to do whatever I want to you. And you'll just have to Yang in there and take it."

Yang stopped in her tracks. "No, just no. If you're going to make a pun, make it a good one."

"It was no worse than some of yours. 'Start my semesters off with a Yang.' Truly?"

The blonde sighed and resumed walking. "Alright, I'll admit that that one wasn't one of my best. Even Weiss made a better one."

"Oh? When did the _kria ro'aran_ do that?"

While she didn't understand the foreign language that crept into the cat's line, the brawler was still able to figure out what she meant. "When my team and I first fought a Paladin, we encountered a new henchwoman of Roman Torchwick. She projected an illusion that was like a sheet of glass to cover his escape, and I punched it, shattering it into a million pieces. When we saw that he had escaped, Weiss remarked that the henchwoman 'made our plans fall apart.'"

Ma'isha chuckled. "That is actually rather good."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, but I'll never let her know that." After a few steps, she looked at the pale yellowish-white armor her lover wore. "By the way, what kind of armor is that?"

The Khajiit beamed and thumped her fist against her chest ( _Oum, damn it, why does she have to look so good?_ ). "This is the finest dragonplate, forged by Jasiir, himself. The bones and scales of the cuirass came from this one's first dragon kill."

"Wow. Actual dragon bones?"

"Yes. This armor is practically indestructible."

Then something else Ma'isha had said registered with Yang. "Wait. From what Jaune told me, I thought only a dragonborn could kill a dragon."

The cat-girl shook her head. "Any fighter who is good enough can kill a dragon, but a dragonborn is needed to ensure that it **stays** dead."

"What do you mean ' **stays** dead?'"

The response was preceded by a facepalm. "Aw crap. This one has said too much." She sighed. "I'll tell you tonight."

At that point, they reached the school's gym. There were a few people working out, but it was overall empty. However, everything else fell away when she caught sight of a familiar parasol, even though the girl who wielded it looked different.

"Sapphire, stay here. I have something to take care of." She stomped over to the girl. "Hey!" In an instant, Yang's fists were shooting forward, fast and precise as Lejule had taught her.

Neo – as Yang remembered her being called – dodged every single attack, but the blonde's spirits were warmed as she saw that that damnable smirk wasn't on the henchwoman's face.

Yang stepped up her barrage, but then Ma'isha was at her side. "Stop!"

Red filling her vision, the brawler rounded on her lover and was about to demand why when she saw a number of other students poking their heads out from behind whatever cover they had managed to find during the battle. A number of surrounding objects had either been broken by explosive shells or riddled with bullet holes from her buckshot rounds.

"Yang, why did you do that?" Ma'isha hissed.

Yang pointed at Neo. "She–"

"I used to work for Roman Torchwick."

While the other students discreetly slipped out of the room, Yang and Ma'isha stared at Neo. Yang was the first to speak. "'Used to?' You don't, anymore?"

As her disguise fell away, the petite girl shook her head. "Not since Professor Daytha helped me reconnect with my daughter."

"Wait. Professor Daytha? That's my father! How do you know him?"

Neo bit her lip and turned away. "I…was tasked with spying on him to make sure he wouldn't be a threat."

"A threat…to _what?_ "

She shrugged. "Whatever Cinder's plans were. Honestly, they've been driven so far off-track that they don't matter, anymore. But, back on topic, Professor Daytha discovered me immediately and healed some old damage." She pointed at her throat. "After that, things kind of snowballed until I left my old life behind."

Then Ma'isha surprised Yang; rather than continue that line of questioning, she changed the subject. "Well, it seems to this one that she is no longer a foe, so let us do what we came here to."

"Wait. You'll just accept what she said? Just like that?"

The Khajiit shrugged. "I can tell when someone's lying. She isn't. Besides, if my dad didn't kill her, she can't be evil." She pulled out her Scroll and linked it to the Aura Monitor screen projected over the combat area of the gym.

Gears whirred in Yang's head as she processed the conversation. Finally, she shook her head and said, "Alright. I'll trust you on this." She whirled on Neo. "But I'm keeping an eye on you. At the first sign of you being still evil, I will find you, and I will kill you."

To her surprise, the little girl _smiled_. "I'd find you extremely lacking in judgment if you didn't try." With that, she spun on her heel, rebuilt her disguise, and walked out of the room.

Looking over her shoulder, Yang walked over to join her lover. "Ookay. That was…weird."

Ma'isha teasingly punched the brawler in the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Ready up; I can't wait to try out some new techniques I've read about."

Synchronizing her Scroll to the Aura Monitor, Yang chuckled. "Not a chance. My turn, tonight." She unfolded Ember Celica and dropped into her fighting stance, a modified version of Houdan Boxing Style 2.

The Khajiit smirked in return and drew her hammer. "Let's go."

Yang drew back her fist, while Ma'isha spun around to bring maximum energy to her first blow.

Instead of throwing her punch, Yang leapt backward. With Aura enhancing the swing, the cat's hammer, Volendrung, obliterated a section of the floor five feet in diameter.

The brawler's counterattack was to leap onto the hammer's head and land two quick punches before springing off and away.

Ma'isha switched to a faster, mostly-one-handed swinging style with Volendrung when she reengaged. The two continued striking at each other, but Yang was quick enough to avoid getting hit for the most part, and the cat-girl's Aura was monstrous enough to allow her to tank most of the blonde's blows.

Then her Aura dropped dramatically, she spun faster than Yang could track, and the massive hammer scored a bulls-eye on the buxom chest. Xiao Long was sent flying into a wall with a depleted Aura, leaving a crater where she hit.

With a dull, clanging thud, Volendrung hit the floor as Ma'isha sprinted over to her. "Yang! Oh my gods, Yang! Are you alright?"

With the cat's help, Yang carefully dug herself out of the rubble. A quick mental check and flex of her muscles told her that she was physically unharmed, although weak from the complete depletion of her Aura. "I'm good." A sudden twinge of pain and aches bled through her fading adrenaline, and she groaned. "Other than the fact that I'm definitely going to feel that for a while."

Grabbing her lover for support, she hauled herself to her feet and looked at the Aura monitor: "Sapphire Daytha 16, Yang Xiao Long 0."

"Well, I guess we discovered your Semblance, and quite a smashing one, if I do say so myself."

A groan prefaced the response she received. "You are insufferable."

"I know." Yang grabbed the cat's chin and dragged her into a kiss. "And you love me for it."

As she retrieved her hammer and helped Yang to her room, Ma'isha asked, "So, what _**is**_ this one's Semblance?"

* * *

Another hammer was twirled about as Nora waited for her and Pyrrha's opponents to show up. "Ugh, waiting is so boring. If Ren were the one I was partnered with for this–"

"He'd probably tell you to practice some patience."

Nora turned away with a sullen expression. "Yeah, he probably would."

Pyrrha chuckled and put a hand wrapped in a bronze-colored gauntlet on her teammate's shoulder. "Well, our match should start soon. Just contain yourself for a little longer." While she hadn't had time to before, for this match, and the rest of her career, Oum willing, she had painted her new armor in the colors of her old and added the sash from her old outfit.

A clicking sound caused her to look up and see a young man putting away his Scroll. "That is just so precious." He looked to be about six feet tall wearing a white hoodie under a chainmail vest and a genuine smile on his face. Held against his shoulder was a sword that was so large that it couldn't be wielded without both hands. "Hey, Pyrrha."

"Hello, again," she said as she recognized the boy who had been one of her classmates at Sanctum.

Beside him was a woman of roughly equal height in solid muscle wearing armor on her chest, shoulders, forearms, and shins. She wore a bladed shield on one arm and held an axe in the opposite hand. "Don't get any ideas, Tristain."

Port's voice came over the loudspeakers. "Nora and Pyrrha of Beacon versus Alecia and Tristain of Haven!"

Pyrrha raised Miló and Akouo and studied the terrain as it formed. On their opponents' side was an arrangement of dark blue platforms, all of which seemed to be floating on air, and a swamp, which made the Mistralian think fondly of home for a moment. Behind her rose an ice field like what RWBY had fought on and a Vacuan desert similar to what had been in SSSN's first match.

Tristain shifted his sword so that the flat of the blade was laid across his palm. "Hey, Nikos! When this is over, can I get a picture with you? For old time's sake?"

She glanced away. "I…don't see why not."

Thankfully, before Pyrrha could be made to feel any more awkward, Oobleck took over the microphone. "3…2…1…Begin!"

Pyrrha darted in front of Nora as Tristain unfolded his weapon, Bonum Nuntium, into its machine gun form and opened fire. Under cover of the barrage, Alecia rushed forward, axe at the ready.

Taking advantage of the fact that neither of the Beacon students could truly move out of the cover of Akouo lest their Auras be washed away by the hail of bullets, Alecia came around their sides and struck at Nora, who caught the axe with Magnhild.

Nora shoved the head of her hammer into the side of Alecia's head and pulled the trigger of the grenade launcher. The result was a shattering of nearly half of the other fighter's Aura.

Pyrrha twisted to the side and used her Semblance to subtly redirect a number of rounds into Alecia, forcing Tristain to stop firing and advance to close combat so as to not eliminate his teammate.

However, he didn't stop to engage Pyrrha but instead tried to reach Alecia. "Nora, help me keep them apart!" Pyrrha threw Miló in spear form and, in a more blatant than normal use of her Semblance, threaded the spear through his legs, tripping him.

As Nora focused more on speed and power over accuracy to push the Haven shield-bearer back, she shouted, "Why?"

Leaping over Tristain and kicking him away from the other duel, the four-time Mistral champion replied, "Tristain's Semblance lets him restore damage his friends have taken, including that done just to Aura." She ducked under a swing of Bonum and retaliated with a thrust of Miló that he leapt back away from. "But he needs to touch his allies to 'heal' them."

"Got it!" Magnhild crashed against Alecia's shield hard enough to send the fighter tumbling into the desert biome.

Pyrrha tossed Akouo face-first against Tristain, held it there with her Semblance, and kicked with her full strength, launching him into the swamp. She recovered her shield and followed.

* * *

Shifting her hammer into its grenade launcher form, Nora peppered her opponent with friendly, bright pink explosions.

"That's it!" Alecia suddenly sped up, mixing run-by hacking from her axe and transforming it into a hand cannon and shooting Nora with it.

As she was bounced back and forth by the blows, Nora shouted, "Owie! Owie! Owie!" Then she stood on tip-toe, shifted Magnhild back to hammer form, triggered a grenade, and used the momentum to become a whirling dervish of potential destruction. While she was spinning, she decided to use a trick Sapphire had told her about. Nora ducked low and used her momentum to dig Magnhild into the sand and raise a cloud of dust that obscured her from Alecia.

* * *

Pyrrha's duel, meanwhile, had moved to the biome of floating platforms, which, she and Tristain had discovered, was an area constructed entirely of Gravity Dust. Thus, the fighters could move, stand, and attack to, on, and from any direction.

Presently, Pyrrha was on the bottom of one of the upper platforms firing Miló in its rifle form at Tristain, who was using his sword as a shield.

She kicked off from her platform down toward him, mechashifting Miló into the sword form. Her target brought his blade around and slashed at her. She tanked the blow on her shield, but the impact sent her spinning. Exactly as she had planned, as it allowed her a free slash across his back that dropped his Aura down below thirty five percent. He quickly used his Semblance to bring that number back up into the fifty percent range, almost nullifying the damage Pyrrha had just done.

However, although probably imperceptible to the average viewer, her trained eye noted that he was beginning to suffer the side effects of Semblance over-usage; his movements were a tad sluggish, and she could hear him breathing just a little more heavily. She just had to push him a little further and his ability to fight would break.

Pyrrha completed her spin by planting her feet on the side of the block Tristain was standing on top of. She leapt away to another block and checked on Nora's progress. A raging sandstorm shrouded the desert biome, occasionally disrupted by bursts of pink smoke. So the bubbly bomber was doing well.

The sound of mechashifting spurred Pyrrha into motion an instant before Tristain opened fire with the machine gun form of his weapon, the bullets punching holes in the platform with every hit. But she had already hurled herself off of her perch, arcing above his line of fire with the grace of a falcon. As she flew, her rifle barked several times, each round striking him in the back. By luck, her last round drilled into the base of his spine; while his Aura held and prevented a crippling or even fatal injury, it was a critical hit that dropped his Aura's strength below fifteen percent.

* * *

The match didn't last long after that, for Pyrrha's precision and Nora's power were concentrated on a single target with an already mostly-depleted Aura level.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** **Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, and I thank those of you who have been patiently waiting for it. I will admit that the ending was rushed as my creativity for the battle was drying up.**

 **Speaking of the battle, I would like to give a thank you to RaptorusMaximus for his/her offering of Team QUST for the sacrifice to Pyrrha and Nora's Doubles Round.**

 **The next chapter will be a Lejule/Typhon/Blake chapter, and after that will be, quite possibly, the largest chapter of the Tournament arc, as I will be covering Penny vs. CRDL, RWBY vs. FNKI, and one other. On that note, I am building a second OC team to take on MOON in the Doubles Round, but I might accept an OC team entry if they 1) meet the qualifications (be an interpretation of the team Cinder's group fought in "Round One") and 2) they appeal to me more than what I am creating (not hard to do, currently).**

 **EDIT: 293 Followers (plus I'm not sure how many more from those watching me and not this story) and only two reviews in three days. What is with that? Regardless, one thing I meant to put in this note when I first published this chapter: Props to anyone who figures out Ma'isha's Semblance without it being explicitly said.**


	20. Chapter 19

_A young boy was running, green eyes wide and matching hair and scaly tail trailing behind him like banners in the wind. But there was no wind down here. He flew past dozens of vague shapes, shapes he would later realize were Faunus and a few humans. They moved in the opposite direction. A small girl with similar features kept pace beside him._

 _A cloud of dust billowed from the end of the tunnel, the acrid scent of ignited Burn Dust biting at the boy's nose. Still he ran. "Momma!"_

" _Daddy!" the girl at his side chimed in._

 _Their sprinting was all-too-quickly reduced to stumbling as the path began to fill with more and larger loose rocks. "Momma!"_

 _The pair rounded a corner and saw two familiar figures further down the tunnel. One was a woman with coppery-orange scales covering her arms; she was half-carrying a man with a similar tail to the boy's._

" _Momma! Daddy!" The boy pushed himself to go faster, slamming his feet into the ground and shoving himself forward. But, no matter how hard he tried, he got no closer to his parents. He could only watch, helplessly, as tons upon tons of rock fell upon them. His last view of his mother was her futily reaching a hand out toward him. "Mom!" he screamed._

 _A rhythmic rumble came from above his head. His wide eyes darted upward just in time to see the ceiling collapse on top of him and his sister._

* * *

Ebon Typhon's eyes snapped open, and he worked to steady his breathing while blinking back tears. A nightmare about the accident. He hadn't had one of those in years; not even the confrontation with the Schnee had triggered them, but last night's talk with Professor Daytha about the cat's past had brought the memory and associated nightmares back to the forefront of his mind.

In truth, he and his sister had only arrived after the collapse of the mine tunnel was over, coming upon a massive pile of boulders that filled the tunnel in its entirety. A thin arm had jutted out from the bottom, beautiful and terrifyingly familiar copper scales covering the back of the hand and extending upward to armor most of the arm.

Both children recognized it, immediately. "Mom!" They rushed over and grabbed the outstretched hand, but there was no response. No pulse. Being this close, they could also see blood flowing out from under the rocks. Tears filled their eyes and spilled down their cheeks.

How long they sat there like that, they didn't know, but Ebon eventually pulled his sister, Verdi, into a hug. Amidst her bawling, he caught her asking him to never leave her, and he had promised that he would take care of her until the end of time.

They had still been entwined when the SDC overseers came to clear out the rubble. In a supreme show of callousness, the humans had simply carted away the two Faunus children and cleaned up the mine. Ebon still didn't know where his parents' bodies had been buried, if they had been allowed that much dignity in death.

Once the mine had been deemed "workable" again, every Faunus miner had been tossed back into the grinder. The shock had been too much for Verdi, and she had fallen ill within weeks. Determined to keep the profits running, the overseers refused to get her any kind of medical attention, as well as refusing to let her rest any more than the daily sleep afforded to all of the miners. Whenever she collapsed from exhaustion and illness, the nearest overseer would zap her with a cattle prod and force her to get back to work.

Whenever he tried to protect her, Ebon was brutally beaten. Eventually, the SDC personnel split the siblings up and put them on different work shifts, forcing him to break his promise in the worst way possible. After another month, Verdi was dead, and Ebon wasn't even allowed to see her. He only realized it because she had been looking worse and worse for weeks, and then she didn't come back from her shift when her shift-mates did.

Shaking his head to banish the memories, he looked over to the two others he was with. Professor Daytha returned his gaze and shook Blake awake. "Come on. Time to continue." The Khajiit stood up and gathered his belongings.

Once they were packed and on their way, Ebon looked toward the professor. "So, why're you going after the Fang?"

Without looking back, the cat replied, "They are harboring a dangerous fugitive, a golden-eyed black-haired woman who goes by the moniker Cinder Fall."

Typhon stopped in his tracks. _Her?_

* * *

 _Mere days had passed since Blake had abandoned Adam on the Schnee Dust Company train. There was talk among the men that they were about to leave, possibly to tear the entire kingdom of Vale apart to find her. For now, however, all Ebon had to do was guard duty. Boring as all hell, but it was something to do._

 _Additionally, there was no "kill or be killed" action when guarding the camp; the most he usually saw was a stray Grimm or two. Usually. A flicker of movement caught his eye and he squinted for a better look. Walking toward the camp were two young women and a young man. A very familiar trio. Typhon raised his gun and hissed, "Adam already told you to leave, so get lost hu–"_

 _He never got to finish his threat. The silver-haired boy rushed forward and kicked the snake in the side of the head. The impact flung him to the side and dashed him against a tree. In the time it took Ebon to pick himself up, Cinder and her lackeys had decimated the White Fang camp. He gathered the energy for his Semblance and spit a fireball at the woman, but she caught it and dispersed it. Then she gestured and a swirling orange eye-like design appeared beneath his feet. Before Typhon could react, the design exploded and hurled him back against the tree._

 _This time, he crumpled to his side and could not bring himself to move, again, his eyes squeezed shut against the pain._

" _What is this?!"_

 _Ebon mentally cheered as Adam entered the fight. He cracked open his eyes to see Miss Fall holding her twin swords crossed in front of her, the boy and girl kneeling next to her with briefcases sitting in front of them._

" _We could have gone to anyone for help, but we chose you, Adam Taurus." Even in the face of one of the deadliest men on the planet, one who had intimidated her into abandoning her attempt to recruit the Fang earlier, her tone never wavered. She stepped forward and tossed her swords at his feet. "Our plan will be beneficial for both of us." She used her pyrokinetic ability to light her blades on fire until they were melted and the sand beneath turned to glass. "Or_ _ **one**_ _of us. So, which will it be?"_

 _Typhon's heart broke as he saw Adam adopt a thoughtful expression. As quickly as he could, he hauled his ass back up off the ground and walked away, his Aura slowly healing his injuries. With a trembling hand, he reached up and pulled off his Grimm mask. After studying it for a second, he threw it away in disgust. The White Fang bowing to a human, especially one who had just damn near massacred the command camp and wanted to use the Faunus as expendable cannon fodder for_ _ **her**_ _"revolution?" He felt betrayed, again. The White Fang was to be a force that would depose human rule, not prop it up. More and more of his White Fang uniform was torn off and discarded. He huffed, tamping down his rage. Enough was enough. No more being led or pushed around. From now on, he was going to live his life on his own terms. No one else's._

* * *

Lejule stopped and looked at the Vacuan student. His breaths were short, his tail waved slowly behind him, and his fists were clenched tightly enough that certain blood vessels looked ready to burst. "You know her, don't you?"

"Yes. I do, and I have a score to settle with her."

The Khajiit barked a laugh, removed his cuirass, and lifted up the under-padding to show off his stabbing scar. "Get in line."

"How did you–?"

"My magic can heal the gravest of wounds with enough time," he replied as he replaced his cuirass.

As they walked, Ebon spoke up again. "That magic of yours sounds really useful."

"Ha! You don't know the half of it."

Blake looked toward him and counted on her fingers. "Elemental damage, flight, healing, and summoning monsters aren't 'the half of it?'"

"Gods, no. What you have seen are merely eight spells from four of the Schools, or categories, of magic. There are well over a hundred spells just that I know."

"What are the 'Schools?'"

Lejule smiled. "Keep this up, and you may end up learning how to perform magic of your own, Blake." He then listed the five Schools (Restoration, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, and Illusion) and their purviews. There were a few effects he purposely left out of his explanation, such as necromancy and soul-trapping. "Now, I will not go into alchemy or enchantment, even though they produce magical effects. Those are entirely different kettles of fish." He swore for a moment that he had heard Blake gulp at that line.

Instead of saying anything about it, she brought up something from the previous night. "Last night, you said something about you being a prophesized hero or something. What was that about?"

The Khajiit sighed. "While I would prefer the 'or something,' yes, I was. A decade ago, the greatest of all dragons, Alduin, 'first-born' of the God of Time, Akatosh, returned from a forced exile. His mission was to rule and then eventually destroy Nirn. The only thing that could stop Him was a dovahkiin, dragonborn. Enter poor old me. I fought through Skyrim, growing stronger, until I confronted and slew Alduin after following Him to the Nords' afterlife, Sovngarde."

"How'd you kill what seems to have been an extremely powerful demigod?"

"By being 'an extremely powerful demigod,' myself. As a dragonborn, my soul is that of a dragon, which marks me as another child of Akatosh."

Ebon tilted his head. "What was Alduin doing in the 'afterlife?'"

Lejule stopped, closed his eyes, and drew a deep breath. "He had somehow figured out a method of devouring mortal souls to restore his strength. I followed Him to put an end to that."

Blake paled. "That's…devouring souls? That's just _wrong_."

The elder cat nodded. "Indeed it is. Every soul deserves peace." _Well, almost._ There were a number of souls he had intentionally condemned to the Soul Cairn, and only his own draconic soul prevented him from losing count of the more than ninety dragon souls he had absorbed and used to empower himself.

On that solemn note, the trio lapsed back into silence.

* * *

Shortly before nightfall, they reached the North Forever Fall camp of the White Fang, the same one Ebon had been a guard for; the same one where Cinder had "recruited" Adam and the Fang. Being back here set his teeth grinding and his blood boiling. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he took stock of the camp's defenses and suppressed a snort when he realized that White Fang patrol protocol had had not changed one whit in two years.

He slipped back into the foliage and reported what he saw to the others. "They've got a standard patrol pattern set up."

Blake nodded. "Two pairs of White Fang soldiers roaming the perimeter?"

The snake nodded. "And another member on guard duty near the easiest entrance. However, it looks like they're starting to pack up and move."

Lejule added his two cents. "So we must strike quickly if we are to obtain any information." He then switched to giving orders. "You two approach, but wait for me to make the first attack. Go."

Neither student was willing to argue with a dragon god in a Faunus-like form. Blake and Ebon split off from the Khajiit and each other, Ebon circling around left, Blake right, and Lejule moving straight ahead. As he waited for whatever the professor's first strike would be, something unusual happened. From a position a few feet behind the guard issued what sounded like Lejule's voice. "Hey! Skeever-butt!"

All at once, every White Fang was on alert and many approached the source of the sound. When they searched and found nothing, Ebon's eyes caught sight of a black crossbow bolt soaring in. It hit the largest of them, a woman he once knew, and detonated in a large ball of lightning that arced through almost all of the soldiers there. The woman dropped like a sack of potatoes and didn't get back up; he didn't even see her Aura break.

He quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind as Blake and Lejule entered the fray, kusari-gama flying through the air and sword swinging, respectively. As the White Fang turned their attentions to the pair of cats, Ebon struck from behind. Lashing out his tail like a bull-whip, he flattened one soldier like a stone, and then charged at a group of riflemen to bring his claws into play.

* * *

Where Typhon was a brutal maelstrom of claws, tail, and blasts of fiery breath and Blake fought with an intricate pattern of twin-bladed slashes, the professor was a precise torch. Every strike he made depleted one of his assailant's Auras, whether with sword or with shield. Showing no mercy, unlike the students, he followed up with another sword slice that felled his opponents for good. A few times in Skyrim, he had left a mortally wounded bandit crumpled on the ground to attack their still-active allies only to have a knife or other melee weapon strike his armor and distract him at a pivotal moment; he had learned very quickly to finish off his foes before they could attack him, again.

A warhammer crashed against his shield and was answered with an uppercut swing of the Claw of Akatosh. Before the soldier could fly very far, Lejule smashed him into the ground with Auriel's Shield, the blow crushing the Faunus' rib cage. "Weak."

The weird combined sounds of a whine and a roar drew his attention to the largest tent, out of which had come the biggest White Fang soldier he had yet seen. In the soldier's hands was a large sword with serrated teeth that moved along the perimeter of its blade. A most intimidating weapon, to be sure.

Or, rather, it would have been intimidating to a lesser warrior. The dovahkiin simply smirked. His dragon internally roared its satisfaction. "Finally, a worthy opponent." He stepped over and gestured to the corpses that had fallen at his feet. "Give me a better challenge than these ruffians!" Shield in front and blade at its side, he bellowed, "Come on!"

The big soldier obliged and charged. When he was five feet away, he stopped and pivoted, bringing his sword around with extra power behind it.

Lejule brought his shield up and the serrated teeth ground against the pale yellow bulwark, but they could not break through. He shoved the bigger man back and slashed him across the chest. He smirked as he saw that the man didn't even seem to have felt the blow. "Now that's more like it."

Wisps of energy flowed off of the cat as he charged his opponent and unleashed a ferocious torrent of attacks. The big Faunus tried to defend himself, but his weapon was too big and cumbersome to keep pace with the Claw of Akatosh. After he was thrown backward by an especially powerful blow, he shouted, "Alright, that's it!" He flung his weapon at Lejule, who ducked and rolled beneath it, and charged forward while swinging his fists.

Lejule returned to his feet just in time to receive a vicious right hook that sent him spinning away. The big man was on him before he could recover and made the Khajiit drop both his sword and shield to properly defend against the rain of blows. That changed when he caught an incoming left uppercut. He knocked away a right haymaker, released the left arm, and retaliated with a heel kick to the man's chest.

The cat's hands darted to a dual sheath at the small of his back and withdrew two half-moon shaped daggers. Then he Shouted. "WULD NAH KEST!" He dropped his shoulder and rammed the higher-ranked White Fang soldier into a tree. With a flurry of strikes, the frost-enchanted blades tore the man's Aura apart. Using the handle of one of the daggers the way a cheating brawler would use a rod of iron hidden in their fist, he punched his opponent in the face, tearing away the mask and revealing unusual goat-like eyes.

As the man collapsed to a sitting position on the ground, a pattern of cerulean lines rippled across his body. He moved to stand and resume the battle, but he was stopped by the point of one of the daggers pressing into his throat, not deeply enough to draw blood but enough to carry the threat.

The sounds of battle petered out, indicating that Blake and Typhon were finishing off their opponents. "You are defeated. Tell me what I need to know and I will let you live. Or I will force you to tell me and then kill you."

"I swear on my life that I will tell you nothing."

Lejule simply narrowed his eyes.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Things are coming to a head. We find out more of Ebon's backstory. The White Fang Lieutenant (who I have heard has apparently been nicknamed "Banesaw" by the FNDM) is down, as is one of the White Fang camps. Will Lejule get the information he seeks?**

 **Next chapter, we have a whopping THREE tournament battles to get through, plus (possibly) a certain scene involving Pyrrha (I'm sure you RWBY fans know the one.). The first two battles are Penny vs. Team CRDL (We all know how that ends.;)), and Team RWBY vs. Team FNKI. The last will be Team MOON (Oreonna and Nichole, in this case) versus a newly-created OC team of mine, AMAO (Aplomado).**

 **EDIT: Also, this chapter takes this story over the 60,000 word mark, making it the longest story I have ever written. Wow.**


	21. Chapter 20

In one of the locker rooms of Amity Coliseum, Team CRDL was performing their final preparations for their Doubles match. Russell spun the Dust cylinders of his daggers, checking that they rotated correctly and that the chambers were full. Sky slid a whetstone against the blade of his halberd.

Cardin clapped his hands to get their attention. "Alright, you two'll be going up against a team from Atlas, next. Let's show those soldiers who the real fighters are." He stepped over to the two and looped an arm over their shoulders. "I picked you two because I believe in you." He tapped his fists against their shoulders. "Now get out there and knock 'em dead!"

As the pair of Valean warriors walked out of the locker room into the arena, Cardin rushed to his seat to watch the coming fight. He arrived just as the match began. The cheer he had prepared died in his throat as the ginger-haired Atlesian girl, Penny according to the Aura monitor, deployed a group of eight flying blades from a backpack and mercilessly attacked his teammates. The boys never got an opportunity to go on the offensive.

As soon as they could, they ran for cover behind a pair of boulders on their side of the arena. Penny's flying blades impaled the boulders, and she looked to her partner, who tapped her wrist. Penny raised her arms, and the swords yanked the boulders into the air before slamming them back down on top of Sky and Russell.

And, with that, the match was over. Cardin put on a brave face to hide his horror at such a humiliating loss.

* * *

When Ruby returned to her seat, she was greeted with a question that launched her heart into her throat. "So, enjoy your talk with the automaton?"

"What?!"

Ma'isha squinted her eyes shut and looked away. "This one apologizes. I thought you knew."

Blake furrowed her eyebrows. "Why do you call her an automaton?"

"Because that is what she is. Every smell that comes from her is artificial, metal and unnatural materials." The lion shook her head. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't know."

Ruby knew that she couldn't truly deny that assertion, so she instead muttered, "She wanted that kept a secret."

Ma'isha buried her face in her hands. "Oh Divines, I am so sorry. I won't tell anyone else, not even Yang."

"Thanks. She just wants to be treated like the real girl she is, no matter that she has nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts." She looked to her teammate, who nodded her promise. Finally, her gaze landed on Ma'rahka, who looked…thoughtful. "Ma'rahka?"

"How does an automaton have a soul?"

"Ma'rahka!" Ruby hissed.

"Apologies. I will keep her identity a secret, although I would like to speak with her later and learn as much as I can." When the crimsonette opened her mouth, he raised his hand to stall her. "I will say that I figured it out on my own, which is not too far off from the truth."

Ruby sighed. "I'd rather you didn't."

Any further conversation was aborted as Oobleck announced the combatants for the next fight. "Yang and Weiss of Beacon versus Flynt and Neon of Atlas."

* * *

Massaging her shoulders to work out what remained of the aches from her early morning spar, Yang looked to Weiss. "Welp, now it's our turn."

With an annoyed roll of her eyes, the heiress returned a barbed, "Just remember to keep proper form."

An exasperated sigh preceded the brawler's response. "Alright." She stretched her arms. "So, you're from Atlas. What can we expect?"

Weiss counted off on her fingers. "Well, seeing as their Kingdom, Academy, and Armed Forces are all merged into one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully-rehearsed strategies."

Then a girl shot in front of them trailing an honest-to-God rainbow. She stopped, revealing herself to be a cat Faunus wielding a set of nun-chucks and wearing roller blades to enhance her mobility. Her teammate wore sunglasses and a fancy suit and hat with his tie undone and wielded a trumpet…of all things.

Yang could almost hear the pounding of a backspace button in Weiss' voice. "Or…whatever they are."

The man in front of them then called out, "Hey! You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress." The way he said that last word set Yang on edge.

Said heiress didn't seem to notice. "I am."

"I take it you're pretty good with Dust, then."

She shrugged. "I do my best."

"Yeah. My pa was good too. Owned a little Dust shop of his own." He tilted his head forward to glare at her from between his glasses and hat. "…'Till your father's company ran him out of business."

Weiss winced. "Is there anything I can do to make up for that?"

"Not a thing, unless you can somehow put my father back in business."

"Consider it done, as soon as I can."

His chuckle held no mirth. "That'll be the day. We'll see how long you remember your promise."

At this point, Yang decided to jump to her teammate's defense. "Hey! Why don't you look at her record while here at Beacon?"

Or rather, she tried to say those words. When she got to "you," she was interrupted by the cat. "Hey! Why don't you? That's what **you** sound like."

 _Her nasally voice sounds nothing like mine._ "Uh…"

"Hey, where'd you get your hair extensions?"

 _How dare she insult my glorious mane?!_ "This is just my natural hair."

"Ooh, really?" Yang could hardly believe the skeptical tone.

"Yeah. You have a prob–?" But the girl had already moved on to another subject.

"You should try rollerblading some time. It's _super_ fun. It'd probably take you a while, though, since you're so, you know, _top-heavy_." As if she figured Yang too dumb to realize what she was talking about, the Faunus put her forearms together in front of her chest.

Remembering Lejule's lessons on not letting rage take over, the buxom blonde took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and replied, probably more loudly than necessary, "Heh. That just means there's more territory for my girlfriend to conquer."

* * *

In the stands, Ma'isha buried her face, which had flushed to the same tone as Ruby's cape, in her hands. "Just kill this one now."

Beside her, Ruby tilted her head in confusion. "Huh. Usually, she gets angry when someone mentions the size of her–."

"Ruby!" It was Blake's turn to blush.

"Sorry."

* * *

Yang's nonchalant response seemed to throw the cat slightly off-balance. _Good_.

At this point, the terrain randomizers had finished their selections. On Yang and Weiss' side were a geyser field and a ruined cityscape. Behind Flynt and Neon rose a Vacuan desert and a lava field similar to the one from Team RWBY's first match.

"3."

Flynt drew a deep breath, while Neon coiled her legs as though to pounce and grinned at Weiss and Yang.

"2."

"On my mark, leap up. I'll give you a platform to fire from, and then lead either or both of them into the desert."

Yang raised her fists. "Got it."

"1. Begin!"

"Mark!"

Flynt blew into his trumpet, but Yang was already on the move, firing at the ground and launching herself into the air and out of the way of the concussive cone of sound waves. Weiss conjured two glyphs, one under her feet to keep her in place and one thirty feet in the air for Yang to shoot from.

An explosive round from Ember Celica landed at Flynt's feet, throwing off his attack, while Neon rushed at Weiss, who moved her glyph toward the desert.

* * *

Ruby leaned over and tapped Ma'rahka on the shoulder. "Hey, if you still want to talk to Kanet, here's your chance." She nodded toward a section a quarter of the way around the arena.

The Khajiit had to squint, but he quickly saw what the reaper had seen; the dark-skinned human girl was sitting a few rows above where he sat and several hundred yards away. "Thank you. I will return as quickly as I can."

* * *

Myrtenaster was a whirlwind of movement to block the cat's nunchucks. The Faunus' speed, combined with the unpredictability of her weapon, was almost enough to overwhelm the heiress, but there was a reason Weiss was considered the most agile member of Team RWBY.

Even so, some strikes landed, and Weiss couldn't retaliate while also concentrating on keeping the glyph holding Yang in the air. Then an expertly-placed explosion erupted behind Neon, catapulting her over Weiss and straight into the sand. Yang followed a second later, allowing the Schnee to let the airborne glyph dissipate.

The brawler grinned. "Ready to stop holding back?"

With a series of clicks, Weiss cycled Myrtenaster's cylinder to activate Ice Dust. "You know it."

* * *

Ma'rahka threaded his way through the crowd, apologizing whenever he bumped into someone or someone complained about him blocking their view. Once, a man wearing a black suit with a red tie and matching sunglasses reached for the hilt of a sword when the cat accidently knocked the man's popcorn to the ground.

Finally, he managed to reach an empty seat near Kanet and sat down. "Excuse me, Kanet. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you."

* * *

Neon was in trouble. She knew it. She knew that her opponents knew it. Her roller blades granted her practically unparalleled mobility on even terrain, but they were useless on shifting sand such as that she now found herself standing on. She could escape the sand, given enough time, but with Weiss and Yang both coming after her and Flynt too far away to assist, Neon knew that she wouldn't have that time. Instead, she made the decision to unstrap her skates and fight the rest of the match in just her socks. It would hurt, but it still beat the alternative of being a sitting duck.

She reached down just as a blast wave made of ice washed across the ground around her. Her eyes widened as the ice encased her hand and feet, and she collapsed, unable to move properly. A quick glance locked her eyes onto a lilac set. She could see Yang smirk. "Well, I guess being bottom-heavy is just as bad for roller-blading."

Despite herself, Neon laughed as the blonde walked away to join Weiss in her new duel with Flynt. "Good to know you can make jokes, too."

Yang glanced over her shoulder and held up a hand. "I try!"

* * *

With Neon immobilized, Flynt knew that his team's ability to deal damage had been severely curtailed. His trumpet was great at displacing and locking down opponents, but it didn't have that high a damage output. With both of them coming after him, he activated his Semblance, splitting off three copies, and tried to catch both Weiss and Yang in the widened cone of his weapon. He hoped to buy enough time for Neon to rejoin the fight, but the Valean combatants simply split up, taking advantage of the greatest weakness of his Semblance: because the copies followed his movements, exactly, he could only focus on one target at a time.

A glyph unlike the others she had cast appeared behind Weiss, and she stumbled. Flynt turned to exploit the weakness, but he then shuffled backward as a snow-white beowolf lunged out of the glyph. This brought him right into line with Yang's fist, sending **him** stumbling right into a pair of slashes from Weiss. She jumped over him as her summoned beowolf arrived and lashed out with its claws

Amidst the pummeling, the Atlesian student had to admit that the synergy among Team RWBY was _incredible_. Not even FNKI, his own team, had this kind of cooperative ability. Yang, Weiss, and the beowolf left absolutely zero room for him to even catch a breath, much less counterattack. In less than thirty seconds, the assault drained his Aura to the point of elimination.

As the buzzer sounded and he went down, Weiss moved to stand over him. "I meant it when I said I would make it up to you. My father has made a lot of mistakes in his running of the SDC, and I **will** work to fix every single one of them."

"Heh. You know, you just might be the real deal, Schnee." He nodded. "I dig it."

* * *

While Weiss and Yang were dominating in their fight against Team FNKI, Ma'rahka was conducting his interrogation. "Is there someone named 'Cyrus' in your family line?"

The dark-skinned girl glared at him. "How do you know that name?"

The partial truth was instantly on the young mage's tongue. "An old legend about a warrior fighting for his people."

She leaned in. "It doesn't exist." Her eyes widened in a sort of recognition. "Not here. But, you're not from here; you're a Khajiit, aren't you?"

"Family stories of Nirn?"

"Yeah."

"How did Cyrus get here?"

She shrugged. "No one knows. He just showed up about eighty years ago, fought in the Great War, and settled down with my great-great grandmother after it. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity. If he knew how to travel between here and Nirn, he never spoke of it."

Ma'rahka sighed. "A shame. I heard he was a great man. Would have liked to meet him. Might also have known a way home." He glanced at her neck and waist. "I did see that he let his sword and an Amulet of Kynareth be passed down the family line."

She patted the hook for her scabbard. "Yes. They were among his only possessions when he arrived. I…can still feel Prince Ator's Aura whenever I wield the blade." She fell silent for a moment. "Can…can we talk about something else? The Soul Sword makes me rather… uncomfortable."

The Khajiit nodded. "Of course. I understand."

The pair of them chatted on about the past, and what had occurred on Nirn since Cyrus' departure, straight through the beginning of the next bout.

* * *

Oreonna stared into the reflective surface of the shield portion of Symphonic Discord, her thoughts still on the events of two days earlier. She started at a hand on her shoulder, but she calmed when she saw that it was Nichol. "Oreonna." She took in a deep breath. "I may not particularly trust Faunus, nor am I the most outgoing person, but I know that I speak for everyone on the team when I say that we're here for you and will help you with any problems you have."

The cat smiled. "Thanks." She slung her shield onto her back and slid her sword home. "Now let's get out there and kick some butt."

For a split second, she would have sworn she saw a ghost of a smile on her teammate's face. "There's the Oreo I know."

With that, they walked out to the arena. Oreonna looked down, sheepishly. "So, I forgot to look up anything about who we're going to fight. Any ideas?"

"I know they are called Aplomado, and they hail from Atlas. I'm unsure of who they elected to fight in the Doubles round."

Oreonna caught sight of two figures walking toward them. "Well, it seems we're about to find out."

One of them was a young man wearing a black, long-sleeve shirt with matching pants and boots with dark gray armor plates covering his chest and abdomen. He had gray-brown skin, dark brown hair, and piercing blue-green eyes. A pair of long, thin steel rods with string wrapped around a third of their length and a hook at the string's terminus were sheathed on his hips.

The woman beside him, however, was just massive. In fact, Oreonna was certain that even Maybelle and Yatsuhashi were smaller than this woman. Her clothes were a plain and simple white shirt and brown pants, both seemingly dirtied with Dust, with the exception of a line of armor plates covering her right arm, a manica if her memory of armor types was correct. As for her weapon, it seemed like she had just strapped a jackhammer to the unarmored arm.

Looking at her face, Oreonna noted that, other than her size, she looked just as plain as her clothing, with the exception of her hair being a subdued blue color and kept boyishly close-cropped. The woman noticed the cat's gaze and shifted her weight onto one hip with a seductive tilt of her shoulders and hips. "Like what you see?"

With a small "Eep," Oreonna averted her eyes, much to the woman's amusement if her bellowing laughter was any indication.

Before any more could be said, Port's voice boomed over the speakers. "Hopea and Oro of Atlas versus Oreonna and Nichol of Beacon. 3."

Nichol's head whipped up. "Wait, what?" That sentiment was shared by Oreonna; no terrain modules had been chosen for the fight, leaving the central platform and eight closed floor panels.

"2."

Oreonna patted her teammate's shoulder as the opposing fighters got into their fighting stances. "Well, this makes it a pure test of skill."

"Whatever. Get ready."

"1. Begin!"

The big woman, apparently Hopea, lumbered toward Nichol, and the boy, Oro, charged at Oreonna.

He shifted his weapons into pistols and opened fire on Oreonna, who responded with pistol fire of her own unleashed from behind the safety of her shield. Oro had no such defense, so he was forced to stop firing and use his weapons in truncheon form to deflect her bullets.

Oreonna glanced at Nichol out of the corner of her eye, to see that Hopea's jackhammer bit had been retracted, turning the weapon into a rapid-fire cannon that was beating against one of Nichol's force-fields.

That brief distraction cost her, as Oro darted forward and smacked her in both cheeks with his weapons. When he went to strike again, she wasn't there. Instead, she had used her Semblance to dodge around him, attacking with sword and shield as two people. Sword!Oreonna covered Shield!Oreonna as she advanced to help Nichol.

Flipping her blade into a reverse-grip Professor Daytha had taught her, Sword!Oreonna parried Oro's weapons and counter-attacked where she could. She slowly backed away from him to keep near to her close duplicate.

* * *

The addition of Oreonna's shield was enough for Nichol to lay off the use of her Semblance enough to start counter-attacking. Cycling Retour's Dust chambers to Gravity, she launched an orb to try and pin Hopea in place. Cuillere's eyes widened as the big woman simply ignored the gravity well and leaped into the air, her weapon extending its chisel as she ascended.

Fortunately, Oreonna was there to catch the blow with her shield, but she buckled under the impact. Repeated hammering drove the cat to her knees, sweat beading at her hairline. She held out her right hand, and her sword-wielding duplicate made her way to rejoin with her.

Before Nichol could assist, Oro reentered the fray, striking at her with his truncheons.

* * *

Oreonna groaned under the strain of Hopea's jackhammer, its ringing drumbeat nearly disorienting. Then she reunited her two duplicates and slashed her blade at her opponent's elbow. Although the blow didn't get past the big woman's Aura, it still hurt, causing her to back off. _Okay, time to put your natural agility to use_. As they squared off, Oreonna ran through the lessons Jasiir had given for fighting larger opponents. The primary advice: strike at weak points, such as joints.

The bi-colored cat darted in and stabbed at Hopea's knee before leaping back to avoid a retaliatory swing of the jackhammer. A couple more probes and escapes led Oreonna to discovering a pattern, a concept that Professor Daytha had taught was a very fatal mistake for any fighter. Hopea relied exclusively on her big jackhammer, with almost no use of her legs or right arm except for the latter being a make-shift shield.

Smirking, Oreonna kept to her opponent's right side to ensure that she was out of reach of the hammer while she whittled down Hopea's Aura.

* * *

Oro knew that Hopea would be outmatched by the agile cat, but he couldn't break away from Nichol without being bombarded in the back with Dust projectiles. He'd had that happen a number of times in sparring matches with his partner, Aeris. Those Dust-projecting cestus…

He shook himself out of the thought to dodge an orb of lightning Dust launched from the bladed lacrosse stick. Ducking in close, he did his best to rip the weapon out of her hands, but her force-field Semblance shoved him back. Holding Zoloto in a reverse-grip to act as shields, Oro charged forward, but the grey-haired girl launched an Ice projectile at the ground just in front of his feet. Unable to stop in time, he slipped on the ice to land on his tail-bone. Activating his Semblance, he felt the impact, but, blissfully, no pain.

Picking himself up off the ground, he smirked as he saw Nichol's composure break for a split second before they resumed battle.

* * *

Leaping over her back, Oreonna landed one last slash to the back of Hopea's neck, dropping her Aura into elimination. At the same time, she saw Nichol go down to a strong blow by Oro.

Oreonna darted over to support her teammate, splitting into two, her shield self knocking Oro back while her sword-wielding self picked Nichol off the ground. "You good?"

Nichol nodded and dusted herself off. "I'm good."

"Alright. Then let's finish this."

Another nod was the reply.

While the two Oreonnas distracted Oro, Nichol snuck around until she could clothes-line him with Retour, knocking him onto his back.

* * *

From his spot on the ground, Oro saw the black-haired cat-girl walk over to stand behind his head and raise her foot. For a split second, he had a strange feeling of deja-vu, with the eyes of the girl he was looking at being green instead of pink. Then the foot came down, and his Aura shattered.

* * *

That night, Yang's yowls of pleasure ensured that no one at Beacon received a good night's sleep.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow. I haven't updated this story almost since RWBY Volume 4 began. I think this might be the longest chapter of this story, so far, and I deeply apologize for taking so long to get it out.**

 **Anyway, we have a whopping three tournament fights (if Penny vs. CRDL can be called a "fight"); of those I had the greatest trouble writing MOON vs. AMAO (Aplomado), due to not having a canon fight to work from. However, I pushed through it.**

 **Next chapter will be the last of the Lejule/Blake/Typhon chapters before the two groups of POV characters reunite.**

 **I have a couple of guest reviews to respond to:**

 **somerandomdovah: Unfortunately, Call Dragon is not a Shout that can breach dimensions.**

 **The Guest from December 4th: I know of one RWBY/Elder Scrolls crossover featuring a Breton dovahkiin. Look up "Beneath a Broken Moon."**

 **This next one was posted on one of my other stories:**

 **Joker: I have not abandoned The Effect of the Dragon. It's just that From Dragon Hunter to Huntsman Professor is now higher priority for me.**


	22. Chapter 21

Lejule stared at the campfire, plenty aware of the pointed, fearful glares being directed at him by Blake and Typhon. The two of them had put the fire between him and them and were sitting at the edge of the camp, pretty much as far away from him as possible.

He sighed as he realized that neither of them would dare speak up out of fear of him. "Speak your minds, children."

Blake was the first to say something. "What did you do, back there? To Choler?"

Typhon nodded. "Yeah. It was…damn unnatural."

Another sigh. "It was a Dragon Shout crafted by the Daedric Lord of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora. While I dislike using it, I do so when it's necessary."

"'Necessary?'" Blake looked utterly disgusted at the thought.

"Yes. There are times when I have had no other option than to use that Shout. In fact, I used the lesser version to break down that wall of stone while we were rescuing Ruby."

"Wait. You can both break stone _and_ control minds just by yelling at them?"

Lejule picked up a stone he was sitting next to. "GOL!" As he directed the stone to assume the form of a scale-model beowolf, he replied, "I can do far more than that."

"Whoa."

Blake curled up a little tighter. "But, what made you learn _that_ Shout?"

The old cat sighed again. "I was not the first dragonborn, nor am I the last." As he wove his tale, he manipulated the stone to depict what he spoke of. "The first was priest of Alduin's cult named Miraak. While the 'how' is lost to time, what he did upon discovering his power was rebel against Alduin's rule and try to take over the world, letting his dovahsil, dragon soul's desire for domination consume him. When He found out, Alduin attempted to have him destroyed, but he escaped by making a deal with Hermaeus Mora. In exchange for ostensibly serving as Mora's servant, Miraak would be allowed to use His realm as a sanctuary where he could rebuild his strength.

"Thousands of years later, after I destroyed Alduin, Miraak made his move, enslaving the citizens of a small island called Solstheim to exploit the power of a group of magical standing stones in order to fuel his return to the material world. However, his desire for power led to him plotting to betray Mora, Himself, and break the deal. When he learned of my awakened dragon soul, he sent members of a cult that had formed around him to kill me. Those two mistakes combined to lead to his downfall.

"When I arrived to confront Miraak, I learned that he had secluded himself in a nigh-inaccessible region of Hermaeus Mora's realm. The only way to get there was to ride something that could fly there, and the only creatures that could fly in the realm were the three dragons that Miraak had forced into his service. I had to use _that_ Shout to break his control and turn them to my side."

Ebon drew up one leg until his knee was level with his chin and rested one arm on it. "So, when will you succumb? How do we know you won't end up like that Miraak?"

Lejule allowed himself a small smile. "Unlike Miraak, I am not alone in the world. I have my wife, my children, and, back home, a many-times-removed uncle. Through my love for them, I am able to keep the dovahsil in check."

* * *

"Oh, come now, you talk about family and don't mention little ol' me? I'm shocked."

Three sets of eyes turned to the edge of the camp, where a man, judging by the voice, wearing a concealing cloak was approaching. Even with her natural Faunus night-vision, Blake had to strain to be able to see any details. What she could see were a set of piercing yellow eyes and what seemed to be a short, white beard. The stranger was holding a walking stick that looked to have been a tree branch that got plucked straight off the tree in a gloved hand, though there seemed to be an eyeball of some kind nestled in the crook of one of the off-shoots. Blake shuddered as she found it thoroughly creepy.

Lejule, however, tensed up as she saw recognition flash through his eyes. "What…are _you_ doing here?" She could hear a growling undertone in his voice.

"What? Can't a guy just check up on a family member with no ulterior motives?"

"He can, but I know that you are not. Speak."

The stranger sat down and held up his hands. "Alright, alright. But, first, an introduction for the two young'uns."

He flipped back the hood of his cloak, revealing a golden cat's head with white, human-like hair and yellow eyes with black sclera, further reinforcing the feeling of the stranger being something that was just…wrong. At the base of the hood was the collar of a shirt or jacket that was split down the middle into two colors; the right side was purple while the left side was orange.

"Sheogorath! Daedric Prince of Madness." He gave a mocking bow. "At your service."

Lejule then practically snarled, startling both students and making Blake afraid that the professor was about to turn into a monster, again. "Get on with it."

The self-identified Sheogorath clicked his tongue three times. "Such a sourpuss, Lejule. But fine. That lass you're looking for, Cinder. She's planning a big party back in Vale. Fireworks, masks, trained beasts, puppet shows! Oh, the pandemonium will be glorious! You know, you just might be able to join the festivities if you hurry."

As the "Daedric Prince" spoke, Lejule's expression gradually morphed from tempestuous to horrified. The instant the cat finished, the professor began barking orders. "Blake, Typhon, pack up the camp. We're leaving in one minute. Anything that you can't pack in that time gets left behind." He turned toward Sheogorath. "As much as I dislike you for tearing me from my life, I thank you for the information."

Sheogorath stood. "Hey. What're great-great-great-grandfathers for?" He tapped his staff on the ground and dropped into a portal of some kind.

Finishing rolling up her bedroll, Blake spoke up again. "Lejule, what is going on? Who was that?"

"Cinder plans to bomb the Vytal Festival and follow it up with an invasion by the White Fang and Grimm; at some point, she'll take control of General Ironwood's robots." All of that was said in one breath while he stuffed his supplies into his knapsack.

Ebon's jaw dropped. "Where did you get all of **that** from?"

"Sheogorath. When you learn to read past the madness, He can be surprisingly informative. 'Party in Vale' refers to the Vytal Festival. 'Fireworks' is the bomb. 'Masks' is the White Fang. 'Trained beasts' are the Grimm. And the 'puppet shows' would be the robots following her orders. As for who Sheogorath is, He is my ancestor five generations back, Lu'cian Wulfson. It's still unclear in my family history, but he somehow took over for the Mad God over two hundred years ago." He slung the knapsack over his shoulder. "We're going now. Leave what you haven't packed."

He raised his hands, violet light forming coronas around them, and thrust them at the ground in front of him. A like-colored portal formed, and a skeletal horse covered in violet flames leaped out of it. "Whoa!"

"What the…?"

* * *

Lejule tuned both of them out as he approached Arvak. "Hello, again, my old friend." He ran a hand over the bare skull. "I hate to burden you, but I have to ask, can you carry three?"

The undead horse looked over at the two students for a moment before returning his gaze to Lejule and giving an affirming nicker.

"Thanks." He mounted the steed and looked back at the teenagers. "Get on."

* * *

Pyrrha sat on the walkway outside of Beacon's cafeteria, the setting sun bathing her in its warm orange-y glow, thinking on the conversation she had had earlier with Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood, and Qrow.

* * *

Stepping on the elevator, she fought to control her grin; she supposed she had to be thankful for Yang and Ma'isha, as their night of passion had managed to cover up the fact that she and Jaune were having their own fun.

Finally schooling her features, she waited for the doors to open onto Ozpin's office. After pleasantries were exchanged and she sat down, Ozpin had congratulated her on moving on to the final rounds of the Tournament. When she had said that she wouldn't have gotten that far without her team, and the man she would learn was named Qrow disparaged them, she rose to the defense.

Very quickly, the discussion was redirected to the subject of fairy tales, with Ozpin revealing that The Story of the Seasons was real, albeit with some of the details changed or lost to time. Then Ironwood and Glynda had arrived and the four adults said that they believed she would be the next Fall Maiden.

They had boarded the elevator and asked her to come with them. Along the way, they explained the process of the selection of new Maidens. The adults had just finished the explanation when they reached a glass and metal capsule containing a dark-skinned girl with a nasty scar on one side of her face; a second, empty pod sat across from it.

Pyrrha stopped short when she saw. "Is that…?"

Ozpin shut his eyes, sighed, and nodded. "The current Fall Maiden, Amber."

Then the girl's chest rose and fell, slowly. "She's…still alive?!"

Ironwood spoke up. "For now. We're using state-of-the-art Atlas technology to try and keep her stable, but she is still dying. Our best estimates say that she will only last another two weeks, at most. We don't know what will happen when she passes."

"Couldn't Jasiir's magic be used to heal her?"

Ironwood looked taken aback. "How did you–?"

Ozpin cut him off. "Jasiir already attempted to do so, but he says that the damage extends down to her soul, something even he cannot heal."

It saddened her still further, but Pyrrha understood. "When she dies, won't her power just transfer to the next host?"

Qrow's rasp filled the chambers. "Look who's been listening." He half-whispered to Ozpin, "She is smart."

Ironwood seemed to pretend not to hear. "Under normal circumstances, yes. But this is a delicate situation. It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker."

Pyrrha gulped at the thought.

The general shut his eyes for a second and looked toward Amber. "And, to make matters worse, no one's seen the power split like this, before. For all we know, it'll seek out its other half."

A pit forming in her gut at the dawning realization, Pyrrha voiced her thoughts. "Her assailant."

Ozpin turned to look at her. "And that would not bode well, for any of us."

Glynda took up the torch of exposition. "There have been many people throughout history that have been hungry for power and tried to hunt down the Maidens in the hopes of inheriting their strength."

Qrow finished taking a drink from a flask Pyrrha hadn't seen him pull out of anywhere. "And, as you can imagine, the ones that succeeded weren't exactly the kind of people you'd want to have 'unimaginable power.'"

"The Maidens' protectors, of whom we are the latest iteration, removed the Maidens from the public eye long enough for their existence to fade into legend. Unfortunately, there are those who remember the truth behind the legends."

As Pyrrha walked up to the pod holding Amber, Ozpin noted, "The devastation that could be caused by a wielder of the Fall Maiden's powers would cause a panic. And we all know what that would bring crawling to our Kingdom's walls." He sighed. "Which is why we would like to–"

"I'll do it." Four sets of eyes snapped toward the Mistralian. She focused on the floor while gathering her courage and shutting away her doubt. "If you believe that this will help humanity…" She looked up and at the teachers. "…Then I will become your Fall Maiden." The way they looked at each other set off alarm bells. "That's what you wanted…isn't it?"

"It is." For the first time that she could recall, Pyrrha heard uncertainty in Ozpin's voice. "But I'm afraid that it's not that simple. Given Amber's condition, you won't be able to inherit the power, naturally. However…" He glanced toward Atlas' headmaster. "General Ironwood believes he has a solution."

"For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint. How it works. What it's made of. How it can be used. We've made…significant strides." He folded his hands behind his back. "And we believe we've found a way to capture it."

With a scornful tone, Qrow expanded on that last statement. "Capture it, and cram it into something else. Or, in _your_ case…" He trailed off and let her fill in the blank.

When she did, Pyrrha's eyes widened and her gaze whipped toward the General. "That's–"

"Classified."

"Wrong."

Glynda stepped forward. "The feeling is mutual, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

Ironwood stepped up to the champion. "And these are indeed desperate times. We can't transfer Amber's powers to you, but we _can_ give you what those powers are **bound** to."

Her voice shaking, Pyrrha again voiced her realization. "Her Aura."

Ozpin put both of his hands on his cane. "Her life would become intertwined with yours. The question is…"

Qrow finished the question. "What's that gonna do to you?"

As Pyrrha turned back and studied the comatose girl, again, Ozpin spoke a final time. "You have an important decision before you, Ms. Nikos. There's no guarantee this transfer will work, and there's no telling if you will come out the same person, if it does. I would advise you to take time to think on this matter. But understand that, before the Vytal Festival is over…we will need your answer."

* * *

A maple leaf landed in front of Pyrrha, as though the universe was telling her to go through with the transfer. Thankfully, Jaune walked up, holding a serving of cotton candy. "Hey. I got you this. I think it might do you some good."

Forcing a smile onto her face, she accepted the treat, and Jaune sat down next to her. They were silent for a moment, Pyrrha half-heartedly nibbling the sugary threads. She started a little when he spoke up. "You were the first person to ever believe in me. You know that?"

She stared at him, a little incredulous.

"Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home." His blue eyes met her green ones. "How depressing is that?"

She feebly attempted to justify the action when he grabbed her hand.

"I guess I'm just trying to say that…you've always been there for me, even when I didn't deserve it. And, I can tell that there's something on your mind. So…I dunno. How can I help?"

With a small, but genuine smile, Pyrrha laid her head on her boyfriend's shoulder. "You're already doing it." A sudden gust of wind terminated the tender moment. "Jaune."

"Hm?"

She sat back up and woodenly said, "I don't know what to do."

"W-what do you mean?"

She debated telling him in a round-a-bout way, but decided that he was her boyfriend. He deserved to know. After checking for anyone nearby, she started to explain. Everything. "Do you know The Story of the Seasons?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Four girls who gained magical powers after teaching an old wizard about the lessons each season provides, right?"

She couldn't help but chuckle at the way he summarized it. "That's one version, I guess." Then her smile faded. "They're real."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. The Maidens are real people, like the Dragonborn. And there is the possibility that I can become the next Fall Maiden."

Another nod. "Okay, I'm understanding so far, but what's the catch?"

A ghost of a smile tipped the corners of her lips. _He's learning_. "The 'catch' is that I might lose who I am if I accept the offer." She stared into his eyes, tears filling hers. "I might lose _you_."

He reached over and grabbed her shoulders. "Hey, you won't. You're too strong for that to happen. And, if the worst happens and I'm underestimating the strength of this power, I'll be right here to help you find yourself, again, and an Arc never goes back on his word." His eyes had turned gold, and she realized that it was his dragon making the promise as much as Jaune was.

The tears now grateful, she smiled and lunged forward to hug him. "Thank you, Jaune. I don't know where I'd be without you."

* * *

After nearly an hour of riding beneath a starry sky, Lejule brought Arvak to a stop. "Dismount."

Blake tried to gingerly slide off of the horse, but ended up falling into an awkward cart-wheel, instead.

Typhon pushed himself off the back of the steed, uncoiling his tail from where it had formed a make-shift seat for him. Even then, he, as subtly as possible, slid a length of that tail along his groin, no doubt attempting to discreetly massage that area.

When everyone was on the ground, Arvak dissipated, his time in Mundus expired. Lejule was about to tell the students to wait for a moment while the spectral mount rested in the Soul Cairn when he noticed something. "Come out."

A second or so later, a raven flew behind a tree, and a woman stepped out from the other side. She wore a mask with attached headdress that combined to make her look more like a nevermore than a person, red manica-style gauntlets, black thigh-high boots, and a mixed grey and red shirt and short grey dress. On her hip hung a cylindrical sword sheath that appeared to hold a multitude of Dust-infused blades, while a red plate of armor protected the opposite hip. What he could see of her beneath the clothing was a pale-skinned woman with red eyes.

"You have been following us since the White Fang camp. Why?"

"I needed to learn whose side you were on. Now I know. You won't get to Beacon in time by horse or foot." She hit a button on the sheath, causing the blades to cycle until it landed on one that was a hair brighter than blood-red, at which point the hilt popped out with a red blade attached. When Lejule tensed and reached for his own sword, she added, "This one is not for killing." With a swing, she opened a portal in the air. "This will take us directly to the academy."

"Why help us?"

"You have a naïve desire to destroy all the evil in the world. I want to protect my family. Our interests align."

Lejule studied the woman's inscrutable body language for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I can hear the sincerity in your words. Let's go." He gestured for Blake and Typhon to follow him through the portal. Just before he entered, he glanced at the woman again. "If you are trying to deceive me, I will destroy you."

The four of them arrived at a scene of chaos. Grimm were running rampant, and corpses both human and mechanical were scattered about the fairgrounds.

There was no time to lose. "Blake, Ebon, we'll find Ozpin, see where we can do the most good." He turned to their "guide." "You go and keep Yang safe." He saw her stiffen and knew his nose had been right.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: We're in the home stretch, now. The Battle of Beacon is about to begin.**

 **Also, I noticed that the previous chapter has only gotten two reviews in seventeen days despite having over 350 followers. What is up with that?**


	23. Chapter 22

Pyrrha took several deep breaths to calm herself as she stood in the locker room assigned to Vale for the final rounds. Oreonna and Yang were in there with her, preparing their weapons. Another breath as Pyrrha reflected on her final decision.

After the talk she had had with Jaune, she resolved that, tomorrow morning, she would go to Ozpin and tell him that she would accept the responsibility and bear the Fall Maiden's soul and power. She only hoped that she would not lose herself or that, if she did, Jaune would be able to pull her back, as he had promised.

Yang, ever the team mom of RWBY, seemed to notice her apprehension. "Hey, something wrong, Pyrrha?"

The Mistralian waved her off. "It's nothing. Just wondering who I may be fighting."

Oreonna nodded. "I understand. What if it were Penny? All those blades." The cat shuddered, but was smiling a little.

A green light came on, and the door leading into the arena opened. Yang patted her Beacon classmates on their shoulders. "Whelp, let's get out there and give the crowd a good fight."

Pyrrha slung her shield onto her back, sheathed Milo, and followed the blonde brawler out into the bright spotlights. As they walked, she took note of the other fighters exiting from their own Kingdoms' locker rooms.

From Atlas' came Penny and a young man with golden brown hair, except for a shock of platinum blond hair front and center, whose chest and shoulders were covered in thick armor plates with thinner plates protecting his arms and abdomen. A pistol rested on his right hip.

Out of Vacuo's stepped Kanet and, well, Pyrrha was unsure if the other fighter was a man or a woman. A flat chest suggested a man, but the slim frame and feminine face suggested a girl. They wore a manica on the right arm, similar to Hopea, a blue jacket over a white shirt, golden armor plates on either side of the waist, and a green hooded shawl. Another striking feature was red facial markings. A bladed bow hung on their back.

The last to enter was Mistral's sole representative, Sun.

In a remarkable display of unity and spontaneous coordination, the eight combatants shuffled their order so that no student stood next to a classmate.

Port's voice boomed out over the PA system. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the One-on-One Finals!" He paused while the crowd cheered. "Barty, why don't you explain the rules?"

"Ah, it's quite simple, Peter. Instead of a bracket system, each round of the finals will be determined immediately before the fight takes place."

"Just like any good hunt, there will be **zero** time to prepare."

Pyrrha pursed her lips. She doubted that claim, very much.

"Ah, yes, yes. Now let's see who our first match-up will be!"

* * *

Weiss sat in her bed, just enjoying the warmth of her sleeping partner. She smiled as her eyes roamed over Ma'rahka's form. Despite having every opportunity to, he hadn't taken advantage of her in her sleep. In fact, he had had a minor freak-out when she had suggested they sleep in the same bed, last night.

Even though he was a cat, Ma'rahka was a good man, a true gentleman. One of the few she knew. When they had lain down, the thought of having sex had never entered the conversation they had. For hours, far past the time they had meant to fall asleep, they had spoken about their homes, their lives, and themselves.

Weiss talked of her life back home and her family. Jacques, her controlling and borderline abusive father, the grooming he did of first her sister and then herself when Winter wanted her own life outside of the family empire; the brutal "pre-entrance exam" he had arranged for Weiss when she wanted to go to Beacon that had left her with her distinctive scar. Ma'rahka had actually growled as she had talked about her father.

Her mother, Willow, driven to alcoholism by Jacques just after Weiss' birth so she couldn't interfere in his running of the company and the family.

Her sister, Winter, and the brighter and more emotional and supportive older sister she was during Weiss' childhood, always encouraging her strength and growth even after Winter had managed to escape their father by joining the Atlesian military. That had led directly to their father stripping away Winter's position as the SDC heiress and passing it on to Weiss.

Then there was her brother, Whitley, who Weiss hadn't really seen much before she left, but he had always looked at her with disdain.

In return, Ma'rahka regaled her with stories of his lessons and home life back in Skyrim.

He described Lakeview Manor, a sprawling, two-story structure Lejule had built with his own two hands. The balcony that formed the roof of the manor's west wing bedroom and gave a view over miles of the surrounding lake and forest. The armory and underground blacksmith's workshop stocked with enough weapons and armor to make any Huntsman envious. The trophy room filled with mementos of Lejule's accomplishments.

He went on to detail his family life. Ma'isha, who was a rambunctious little kitten in her youth, always climbing among the nearby trees and running around on the manor roof. Weiss felt a pang of jealousy when Ma'rahka mentioned that she was as developed as Ruby at the age of 12.

The family matriarch, Aela the Huntress, going by the name of Jade here on Remnant, who was the last of a long line of female members of the legendary warriors' guild known as the Companions. A werewolf like Ma'isha and Lejule, she was the one who led the family's weekly hunts and taught them everything there was to know about being werewolves. She was also one of the best archers on Nirn, matched only by Lejule; Weiss was fairly certain that that was an embellishment on Ma'rahka's part.

Ma'rahka went further and talked about the education he and Ma'isha received. Dozens of books and daily lessons from some of the greatest scholars in Skyrim. Ma'isha received physical training and learned how to smith and wield weapons, especially the big warhammers that would culminate in her weapon of choice, Volendrung. Ma'rahka was taught the magical arts, although his pre-adoption childhood had imparted on him the knowledge of how to sneak around and employ a dagger to fight, abilities that Lejule and Aela had helped him improve.

That had led to Weiss asking him if he could teach her how to wield more magic than the simple reinforcing conjuration spells she was using to improve her glyph-based summoning. In turn, Ma'rahka had launched into a discussion of the principles of magic and a possible lesson plan for her. They had continued talking until they both had simply nodded off from exhaustion shortly before sunrise.

Looking at the clock, her mood dampened a little as she realized how late it was. She patted Ma'rahka's shoulder. "Come on, Ma'rahka, get up." When she got a grumbling response, she added, "We're going to be late getting to the Coliseum if we don't get up, now."

"We can watch the event from here."

Weiss sighed. "I know, but we should be there to at least cheer on our friends."

He simply groaned and got out of the bed, and Weiss' eyes roamed over his bare back, unbidden. Then the light hit just right, and she saw a massive scar that stretched across the mage's back. Even her ironclad discipline couldn't stop her gasp of shock at the sight. "Ma'rahka…?"

"Hmm?"

"What caused that?" She got up and reached half-way toward the scar, but pulled her hand back instead of succumbing to the urge to touch it.

The scar was long, reaching from his right shoulder to just to the left of the small of his back, and ragged. Weiss shuddered as she tried and failed to imagine what could have done that kind of damage. He turned around with a wan smile and returned to the bed, back to her as she sat down next to him, as though daring her to touch the old wound. She was unable to resist at that point, and her fingers traced the jagged discoloration in his tan flesh. "A few years ago, my father took me on a training mission into the Reach, a region home to Skyrim's greatest silver mines. It was also inhabited by a group called the Forsworn; they are roughly analogous to the White Fang with the goal of driving out or killing all Nords in the Reach so that the Forsworn can go back to the life they lived before. We were to kill a group of them that were bothering a farming village.

I was younger, a little bit younger than you, and more stupid then. I failed to keep track of where my opponents were, and one of them got behind me. His saw-toothed sword raked across my back." He sighed and looked over his shoulder at her. "I would have died right there if my father hadn't been there. He drove the Forsworn back until I could heal the damage with my magic. But, as you can see, I was in too much pain to heal the wound, properly. If it had been healed by a healer on my father's level, or even a temple priest, there would be no mark remaining. Still could, in fact, but I decided to keep it. Reminds me that I still have much to learn and that I am not invincible."

Weiss reached up to her own scar. "I know exactly how you feel."

"Another thing we have in common, then. By the way…" He reached over and ruffled her hair, much to her chagrin.

"Hey!"

"You look very pretty with your hair down."

There was no stopping the rush of heat to her cheeks.

* * *

Ozpin walked over to his desk and poured himself a cup of tea as the two combatants for the first match of the final round.

"It looks like our first contender will be…" The picture stopped on a ginger-haired girl with a pink bow in her hair and a black gorget with green lines. "…Penny Polendina from Atlas! And her opponent will be…"

Ozpin took a sip and then stiffened as the second picture settled into place.

"…Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon!"

* * *

"Would all other combatants please leave the stage?"

Yang and Oreonna flashed Pyrrha a thumbs up and an encouraging grin, respectively, as they walked away. When she and Penny were the only ones remaining in the arena, the sections that normally hid the terrain modules retracted, revealing instead floor panels emblazoned with the emblems of the four kingdoms. A ring of lights turned on, and the central platform rose into the air.

Penny waved at her. "Salutations, Pyrrha Nikos. It's an honor to finally meet you."

Pyrrha readied Milo in its spear form. "You as well."

"3…2…"

Pyrrha slid Akouo off her back and dropped into a ready stance.

"…1…Fight!"

Penny deployed her blades and began to actually dance to control them. It was…kind of cute, actually.

But the Mistralian pushed such a thought to the back of her mind as she charged forward.

* * *

Weiss and Ma'rahka were watching on her Scroll, as they had taken too long to get ready and missed the last ship heading up to Amity. She snuck a glare at him. "Next time we're on a time limit, we're putting your hair into a warrior's wolf-tail instead of following your insistence on braids."

Ma'rahka gaped at her. "But…the braids are a hallmark of my father's family!"

"Don't care." She returned her gaze to the Scroll, where Pyrrha and Penny were at a stalemate with both striking at a relentless pace but unable to land a solid blow, and tried to keep her stern expression.

After a few seconds, both of them burst out laughing. "Sorry for making us late."

"It's fine. Let's just concentrate on the fight."

The cat nodded. "And cheer on Pyrrha."

"Yes."

* * *

Pyrrha ducked and weaved as she worked to avoid the Dust laser blasts from Penny's transformed weapons while returning fire with Milo's rifle form whenever she could. After finding a break in the wall of firepower, she darted in and lunged, transforming Milo into its spear form and landing the first real blow of the match. The impact was enough to launch Penny backward and off the stage.

For a split second, the Invincible Girl lowered her guard and allowed herself a breather.

Penny came soaring back, using the laser mode of her swords as an improvised jetpack to tackle the Mistralian. The impact sent Pyrrha and her weapons flying in different directions.

As a testament to her training, the champion bounced back to her feet and tried to summon Milo and Akouo back to her with her Polarity. However, Penny used her swords to knock the gear off the arena platform. Then she settled all eight blades above her head with an unsettlingly malicious grin on her face for a moment before launching them forward.

Pyrrha would not let herself panic, instead using her Semblance to bat the blades aside while ducking to her right and charging at her foe. Thanks to practice with both Yang and Jasiir, she had become rather proficient at hand-to-hand combat. This, she found, was where she vastly out-stripped Penny, landing a number of unanswered blows.

Her trained hearing caught the return of the flying blades, and she leapt up and back over them as they impaled the spot where she had been standing. As she soared, she grabbed the last sword and sliced off its control wire. With her newly-acquired weapon, Pyrrha darted back into the fray. Finally, after several more minutes of combat, Penny's Aura was the first to fall, and the elimination buzzer signaled Pyrrha's hard-won victory.

"Pyrrha Nikos wins!"

Port's laugh reverberated around the stadium. "What a way to kick off the finals!"

A woman's voice Pyrrha was unfamiliar with came over the loudspeakers…no, the CCT broadcast! "Yes, this was an impressive display. And, yet, what does this 'tournament' teach these kids? How to win at any cost? Or to be better than anyone else? I've traveled the world, and I can tell you what happens when someone thinks they're better than someone else: they oppress their perceived 'lesser,' beat them into the ground, enslave them.

"They also think that these 'lessers' are expendable and can be treated as any other collateral damage in pursuit of the destruction of their enemies. When a team of Huntresses-in-training chases a criminal down a busy highway, causing the deaths and injuries of dozens of innocent bystanders, are they punished? No. They are praised for their initiative, congratulated for doing what the police wouldn't, even though they still ultimately failed to apprehend the criminal.

"And if this is the kind of victory those in power crow about, what must the failures they cover up be like? The Grimm nearly invaded Vale scarcely two months ago, in such numbers that thousands of innocents would have died. The personal sacrifice of hundreds of White Fang soldiers was the only thing that stopped the horde, giving their lives to keep their fellow Faunus in Vale safe."

* * *

Weiss heard the signature whooshing roar of a launching locker, which was a red flag to her as there were no more fights scheduled tonight. She and Ma'rahka darted over to the window. Sure enough, there was a solitary rocket-propelled locker flying toward Amity Coliseum.

"Yet not one word of this event ever reached the news. One has to wonder what else is being kept secret. What else could end your lives without you ever knowing about it?"

Weiss heard Ma'rahka take a sharp breath. "Oh, Gods."

"What?"

He opened the window. "Find Glynda and get her to come under the Coliseum. That locker is on a trajectory to hit Amity's Dust crystal."

The heiress' eyes widened as she realized what he meant. Even the small amount of fuel on a rocket locker could synergize with and detonate Dust it collided with. And with a crystal as large as what powered Amity Coliseum…"Oh, God."

He jumped out of the dorm window while she switched to calling Glynda and running through Beacon's hallways, not even taking the time to ask him what he was planning to do.

* * *

"In the name of peace, Atlas' army has occupied Vale's streets for several months, and the citizens have simply accepted that state of affairs without protest or question. No one has bothered to ask what they are really here for. Is it a power grab by Atlas? Or something worse?"

Pyrrha and Penny exchanged a glance.

"The leaders of our Kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves, and we just hand over our safety and even our children without a second thought. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you, the situation there is…equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are at the brink of war! Yet we, the citizens, are kept in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, how safe do you truly think you are?"

Then everything went to Hell as the floor beneath them erupted in flames.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: And, done. The climax has arrived. See you next time.**

 **EDIT: I recently learned what Monty (R.I.P.) apparently wanted to name Weiss' mom and have corrected my mistake.**


	24. Chapter 23

The explosion lifted Pyrrha into the air. For a brief moment, she experienced weightlessness and turned her head to look into the section of the stands where her team was sitting. To her relief, the explosion hadn't reached that area; Jaune was safe. As gravity reclaimed its hold on her, she shut her eyes and accepted her new fate. She passed through the smoke and residual flames, the acrid tinge of burning metal stinging her nose, the wind whistling past her. Distantly, she heard an automated message weakly and intermittently blare, "Warn…Grimm…-vel Nine."

Then a set of arms and legs wrapped around her, and Pyrrha opened her eyes.

Penny had dived after her, flinging her seven remaining blades back to hook into the stadium. "Hold on, friend Pyrrha. I won't let you fall."

Pyrrha returned the hold, looking past Penny to Amity, fully able to see the damage from here. Everything below the seating areas had been obliterated, including the loading docks. Then her eyes widened as she saw the Coliseum's levitation thrusters shut down. "Penny, get me to the ground as quickly as you can."

"What? Why?"

"The Coliseum is about to fall, and I think I can slow it down, a little."

The Atlesian student was silent for a moment, staring up at the stadium in apparent thought. "Okay. I'll try."

* * *

As Ma'rahka passed through the fairgrounds, he encountered and destroyed the first Grimm, barely breaking his stride as he went. At the edge, he cast a Circle of Protection to repel the Grimm and then activated a gift he had snuck from one of his father's forbidden books: the Secret of Arcana. With that, he briefly had the knowledge of how to cast spells without Magicka. He wove the energies of Aetherius around his hands while he focused on one of the hardest spells for him to cast. When he felt that it was ready, he dual-cast a Telekinesis spell at the falling Coliseum.

Even though he had known that this would be a colossal undertaking, he was still caught unprepared for the sheer _weight_ of Amity. He buckled and fell to a knee, almost losing the concentration he needed for the spell. However, the knowledge that upwards of half a million people currently resided in the structure allowed him to shunt away the growing fatigue in his arms and reinforce the spell with his Aura.

Almost to his shock, the arena did slow down its descent. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough, and he knew that it would still crash, causing a massive loss of life. He knew he couldn't do this alone and could only hope that Weiss was successful. Then there was a sudden lessening of the pressure on himself and he looked around. However, Glynda and Weiss were nowhere to be seen. When he looked closely at Amity, though, he noticed a distinctive black glow around its supports.

He sighed in relief and forced more power into the spell, slowing the Coliseum's fall still further. _Thank you, Pyrrha_.

Growling drew his attention to the gathering swarm of Grimm, at least half a dozen, that was prowling around the outskirts of his circle…which was starting to fade. "Oh, dear." A Beowolf reached out toward the border of the spell just as it failed and, when it didn't experience any pain, pounced at the Khajiit mage. He closed his eyes and prepared for pain, knowing that his Aura was weakening to keep the Telekinesis strong. Instead, he heard a thump and a yelp. "What–?"

Cardin's voice reached his ears, but he couldn't turn from his task to look. "You can thank me later, fr–Faunus. I don't know what you're doing, but it doesn't seem – Sky, Dove! On your right! It doesn't seem like you can defend yourself while you're doing it. Russell, duck! So I decided to keep your ass safe for as long as you need." Every few words were punctuated with a gunshot, a meaty thump, or the distinct sound of a blade rending flesh.

Despite himself, Ma'rahka smiled. Returning his attention to Amity, he noticed that a purplish glow had joined the black, and the three telekinetic abilities had managed to slow the Coliseum to a safe enough speed that it wouldn't crush itself flat on impact. He could only pray that it was enough to save the people in the stands. With a gentle nudge of his spell, he began to direct the descending structure to land on a more even area and was pleased to note that his unseen helpers were following his lead.

His heart hammered in his chest, his lungs burned, and his head throbbed; the Secret wasn't meant to be retained for so long and used so heavily. As his body shook and his vision blurred, a hand fell on his shoulder. "Release your burden, son. I will carry it from here."

It was all he could do to collapse gracefully as he ended the spell. "Father. Thank you." Despite the negligible volume he was able to speak with, he knew that Lejule had heard him.

The elder Khajiit took over with his even more powerful casting of Telekinesis to bring the stadium down safely.

* * *

Jaune could only stare, his hand reaching out, futily, in the direction of where the fighting area used to be. He was vaguely aware of Ren trying to get his attention, the screams of the crowd, the warnings on the public address system, but it all bled into the background of his shattering heart. Pyrrha Nikos, the love of his life, was gone. Smoke was blowing up from the hole where she and her opponent had fallen.

Two things happened, then, to jolt him back to awareness. The first was the arena shuddering and the smoke changing its behavior. The second was Ren yelling. "JAUNE!"

"Wha–?"

"We have to get these people to the upper tiers. It's the only way they'll survive when Amity hits the ground."

Jaune stared back blankly for a second. "Right." He nodded. "Right. Let's move it, people. Nice and orderly."

Then came a sound he most definitely did not want to hear: the screech of a Nevermore. He looked up at the roof of the stadium and saw the giant Grimm bird, easily larger than the one his team had fought during Initiation, perched on the side of the opening and peaking its head in. His eyes widened as he realized that the cause of the blast wasn't a bomb planted under the stage, but the Dust crystal powering the entire Coliseum; with that gone, so too were the safety barriers.

In a second, he realized what he had to do. "Ren, gather everyone who can fight without a weapon and follow me. Everyone else, continue getting the civilians to safety."

"Jaune, what are you–" Ren's eyes widened. "But Jasiir said–"

"I think that our situation is drastic enough that I need to use it. Let's go." He may not have been able to save his partner, but he'd be damned if he didn't try to save as many others as he could.

* * *

Aela ran alongside Ma'isha, a conjured Daedric bow in her hand and a quiver full of matching arrows on her back. Their destination was their family's room where their armor and weapons were stored. They had been watching from a food stand in the fairgrounds when the disaster began. Despite having the capability and the knowledge that it would greatly aid them in reaching their room quickly, neither of them dared to shift into their beast forms for fear of further terrorizing the attending villagers.

When the Grimm arrived, the two Tamrielic warriors for the most part ignored them as neither was properly-equipped to fight just yet. Aela cursed as she thought about how easily that could have been remedied if they had decided to use the "rocket-propelled lockers" that the students were allowed.

A Beowolf leapt at her and received an arrow through the face for its trouble. They didn't even dignify its death by slowing down. As they reached the outskirts of Beacon's courtyard, Aela saw men in familiar uniforms swarming the school grounds, seemingly being ignored by the Grimm. "Dear, do you see the men in masks?"

"Shall we feast, _ahnurr_?"

"Continue and get our weapons and armor, first. Even these fools will run out, eventually. I promise to leave some for you when you return."

After some grumbling, Ma'isha ran off, leaving Aela to hunt. She dropped the bow, which faded before it hit the ground, and unleashed the wolf within her. There was the familiar and welcome pain as her heart enlarged to pump her blood more powerfully, followed by her ribcage cracking and expanding to hold her enlarged organs. A melody of cracks and pops ensued as Hircine's magic reshaped her body into a reflection of the ultimate predator, limbs elongating, legs becoming digitigrade, her face pushing out into a lupine muzzle, and her russet hair morphing into fur and growing and spreading to coat her entire body. When the change was finished, she raised that muzzle skyward and howled.

With a pleased, wolfish grin, she noted that a number of the nearest White Fang members had heard her call and turned to face her, fear wafting off of them in an intoxicating, nearly smothering, blanket of scent. With a growling roar, she launched herself at her prey. They opened fire in a panic, but the few rounds that hit were deflected by both her Aura and her armor-strong hide. She loped right, then juked left, and pounced on the nearest soldier. His weak Aura collapsed just under the initial impact, and her slashing claws had no resistance. Five strikes from alternating hand-paws tore open his "armor" and chest, the fifth pausing long enough to reach in and rip out the man's heart.

She stood, considering the heart in her hand and regarding the other terrorists from the corner of her eye. Appropriately, and pleasingly, they were quaking in their boots, drawing the Grimm right to them. To hammer home the final nail in their coffin, Aela brought the heart to her jaws and bit into it. As though a spigot had been yanked off of a keg, the nearest White Fang dropped their weapons and ran, the stench of urine or feces trailing them. Most didn't get far before the Grimm were upon them.

Grinning, the she-wolf went to work tearing apart the Grimm and White Fang, equally.

* * *

Brawnz rammed his Argent Talons into the head of a charging creep, crushing the Grimm against the ground. A growl made him look up to see an ursa about to drop its claw onto his head, and he was well out of position to counter it. A bullet struck is mask, followed by two more that dug into its chest and forced it back, stumbling. A final round burrowed through the mask, putting the bear Grimm down. Brawnz looked back and nodded his thanks to May and turned to find his next target.

Roy was in the middle of turning a beowolf into just so much chopped meat with his buzz-saws, while Nolan struggling to beat another creep to death with his cattle prod.

Further on, other students were also beating back the Grimm horde. He could see members of Teams NDGO and QUST working together, specifically NDGO's Gwen and QUST's Ursula bombarding a young king taijitu with so many projectiles that it looked more like a block of Atlesian fancy cheese than a monster by the time it dropped.

Combined with the Atlesian Knights scattered around the fairgrounds, the students were managing to keep the Grimm away from any civilians long enough for the latter to be evacuated. Brawnz allowed himself a small smile as he uppercut a boarbatusk. If the battle kept going like this, the huntsmen and huntresses might just win this.

Then he heard the Bullheads.

* * *

Cinder pursed her lips as she watched Amity's descent stabilize to a safe speed. She would have preferred for it to crash, but no matter; its inhabitants' relief would be short-lived, and the panic would remain about the same. She regarded her scroll and sent out a ping requesting an update.

The White Fang reported back that they were beginning their assault. Good. That would keep the huntsmen, huntresses, and Atlesian Armed Forces busy. Almost worryingly, the North Forever Fall camp failed to report in; she could only assume that there was a contingent of huntsmen out there that had taken out the camp, but that was good in its own way as those huntsmen weren't here to stop her.

Roman didn't reply, but she knew him well; he'd take this opportunity to steal as much as he could get away with and flee the doomed kingdom. That would be its own brand of chaos that would keep the police occupied. She tapped her chin. Maybe she could…"influence" him to move to Mistral and help with the next phase of her mistress' plan.

What truly worried her was that, just like as of two and a half days ago, there was no response from Emerald or Mercury. She bit her lip at the thought of the two of them in the custody of Atlas, or worse. Cinder realized that she had, just maybe, begun to consider the two as something like her children.

The rous Grimm next to her sniffed at her hand, no doubt detecting her negative emotions, and she forced away the distracting thoughts. She'd kept her minions as in-the-dark about her plans as she could precisely to ensure that they couldn't reveal anything if they were captured and interrogated. And, if they were dead, then it was a shame; they had been doing so well. Forcing her back straight and squaring her shoulders, she focused on the power of the Fall Maiden within her and its connection to its other half.

With a moment's meditation, she determined the direction she needed to go. Waving her hand at the Grimm, she began walking, leading the diggers that would bring her to her prize.

* * *

Ion Vermil typed furiously at the control console in front of him, doing his best to ignore the gunfire not ten feet behind him. The things the White Fang paid him to do. The insertion had gone off well enough, with their Bullheads using the swarms of nevermores and griffons for cover and then strafing the battleship's bridge. When the bridge crew was dead, his team moved in. While the combat team went about physically securing the bridge, Ion began work on installing the software the Fang's new benefactor had provided him through Adam.

The software was uploading, with a black queen chess piece proudly displayed over the loading bar, but it needed time. So, Ion was working on a program that would lock out the console once the upload was complete. Still, as another burst of gunshots let him know, it was still fewer than a dozen freedom fighters working to hold the room against the entire armed crew complement of an Atlas warship.

A scream made him wince and squeeze his eyes shut beneath his mask. He opened them again when the console beeped. On the screen were words that might as well have been blessed by God. **Upload complete. Confirm execution Y/N?**

Without missing a beat, he tapped in the confirmation command, taking down the last of the Atlas firewalls. The bridge lights turned red, the various remaining monitors in the room switched to displaying the same black queen, and an electronic hum began to pulse through the intercom. Ion turned and opened his mouth to let his comrades know of his success, but two Atlas bullets made it through their line and caught him in the head.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Battle of Beacon has begun…**


	25. Chapter 24

" **GAAR QO BAH**!" With those words, Jaune used his thu'um to will into existence a lightning bolt that streaked toward the nevermore's bone mask. The Grimm shrieked in pain as the electric attack tore a ragged black scar across the white plate and red markings. Thankfully and not, the shrill scream was drowned out by the detonation of air around the bolt.

Arslan of Team ABRN was at his side, using her Semblance to launch fireballs in the lightning bolt's wake. "We get out of this, you're gonna owe a lot of people explanations."

The blonde nodded. "I know."

Then he saw a fleeing civilian trip on the steps and fall between him and the nevermore, which took notice of the new, easy prey and lunged.

Before he even realized he was doing it, Jaune was dashing forward to interpose himself between the Grimm and the civilian. As he ran, he felt the energy of his Aura pulsing through his being. Reaching the civilian with a split second to spare, he braced himself for the impact.

* * *

Pyrrha slumped in place, her arms falling limply to her sides, as she released her Semblance. She'd done it. With the help of others, whose efforts she had felt alongside hers, she had brought Amity Coliseum down, safely. But it had come at a cost: she could hardly stand, let alone move, and fighting was out of the question.

As she felt herself start to collapse, someone grabbed her shoulders. "I've got your back, Pyrrha." One hand released while Penny directed her blades to carve a clearing amidst the Grimm around the pair.

"Thanks… Penny. I… need to… get to… the CCT Tower. Quickly." She suppressed a groan; even the act of talking was further exhausting her.

"What? Pyrrha, you can barely stand. We need to get you to a doctor, not–"

"If I… don't… go, everything… will be… for naught. At the CCT… is the… only hope… to stop this."

The Atlesian was silent for a moment, and then she lifted Pyrrha onto her shoulders and began to physically carry her to Beacon. "I'm going to trust you to know yourself. But, if you pass out and I can't wake you up, we're heading to the infirmary, instead."

A huff of air was the nearest the Mistralian was able to come to chuckling. "Perfectly… reasonable." A few seconds later, she murmured, "You're… very strong." Then the secondary effect of her Semblance found something. "Penny… is your… whole body… made of… metal?"

"I…" Penny fell silent for a long moment, as she sprinted through the streets of Vale. "Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

Pyrrha wasn't sure why there was the need for secrecy, but she tapped her chin against Penny's shoulder, the closest she could get to a nod.

She heard the Atlesian sigh. "I'm not… a real girl. I'm a synthetic person capable of generating an Aura."

"That… explains… some things." Then she remembered something she had been told.

Qrow's voice echoed in her head. " _Capture it, and cram it into something else_."

"Did… your Aura come… from someone else?"

There was a massive hitch in the android's step, just shy of a full stumble. "What?"

"I… think I saw the… machine… that gave you Aura."

Again, Penny took some time to respond. "My father built me because his daughter was in a coma. He wanted to bring her back, however he could. Mr. Ironwood's research gave him a way." She stopped and gingerly lifted Pyrrha off her shoulders as a whirring roar reached the Mistralian's ears. "Wait here. I'm going to catch us a ride."

"Don't… take too long." She settled and let her head loll to the side.

Penny tugged on her chin so she looked the other way. "I won't."

A Bullhead was settling down, a White Fang soldier barely visible in the cockpit. As its doors opened to disgorge Grimm, the synthetic went to work.

* * *

Blake and Typhon ran through the fairgrounds, the former staring at her Scroll as it tried to connect. _Come on, come on_.

Finally, the warmly familiar voice poured through from the other end. " _Blake, is that you?_ "

"Yang! Where are you? Are you alright?"

" _I'm fine_." There was the sound of Ember Celica discharging. " _We're on Amity, working on helping the Atlas guys evac civilians_. _You?_ "

"We're at Beacon. It's crawling with Grimm and White Fang."

" _Damn it_."

Typhon's head twisted toward the Scroll. "Wait. Why are you evacuating the Coliseum?"

" _Someone blew up that Dust crystal that gives the stadium power_." The two Faunus shared a glance." _Don't worry_. _It was brought down, safely_ –" The chillingly familiar screech of a nevermore interrupting her echoed out of the Scroll.

Blake's eyes widened and she held the device closer to her face. "Yang!"

" _Gah! You little–! I'm gonna have to call you back, Blakey_." The call went dead.

"Yang?" Tears tickled the corners of her eyes.

Ebon patted her shoulder. "I'm sure she'll be fine. There are dozens of Huntsmen and Huntresses on that structure. A single nevermore stands no chance against them."

Blake stared blankly at her Scroll for a few moments. "Right." She blinked and shut the device. "Right. Let's go."

* * *

Oreonna trotted forward a few steps and waved at the line of civilians. "Come on! Let's get you all out of here!"

The first Atlas and Amity transports were arriving at the makeshift docks that had been set up near the top of the Coliseum by the Huntsmen and Atlesian soldiers. Then a deep roar reverberated from ahead, and the crowd log-jammed as those in front tried to retreat. The Huntress-in-training looked toward the disturbance and paled, her ears backing as she took in the sight. A griffon had landed between the civilians and the aircraft, and she was the only Huntress nearby. Many of the others were busy still dealing with the nevermore that had landed in the stands. Those that weren't were much farther back helping to direct the civilians

Shifting Symphonic Discord's bow-sword into its gun form, she loosed a volley of Burn Dust bullets to get the Grimm's attention. "Over here, you son of a–" It roared at her. "Oh crap." She booked it away from both the monster and the innocents, luring the beast after her. "Crap, crap, crap!" It swiped its claws at her; she ducked out of the way and swiped back before darting away, again. Then the worst happened, and she found herself in a near-dead end with only two ways to go: back, which meant through the griffon, or off the edge, which was still taller than the Beacon Cliff. "This is gonna suck."

However, by the time she was able to turn around, the monster had taken the choice away from her and was already pouncing. With barely a gasp of surprise, she brought up her shield on instinct. She felt the impact of its claws against the metal, and then she felt nothing but air beneath her feet.

* * *

"Get…" A swing of a massive club designed after a baseball bat crushed a beowolf. "Away…" Another stroke launched a creep into the storefront across the street. "From my…" The club's wielder swept an ursa's legs out from under it before stomping on its head. "Club!" Junior shifted his weapon into its multiple-rocket launcher form and blew a small crowd of Grimm to kingdom come.

Behind him, the twins worked with each other to thin the herd in the other direction. Melanie chopped off a boarbatusk's head with a literal axe-kick, while Miltia repeatedly impaled and eviscerated a beowolf with her claws.

The other members of the Vale branch of the Black Bear Triad weren't faring quite as well against the monsters, due to their lesser training and weak Auras. Barely half of them could still fight, and their pistols weren't doing much against the Grimm. The only reason they hadn't been overrun was the innate chokepoint formed by the club's parking area.

 _And Atlas is no help, whatsoever_ , Junior thought as a droid entered the area and turned its gun on him a second before he annihilated it. A few minutes ago, all of the Atlesian robots had switched sides, ignoring the Grimm and opening fire on everything else except for the White Fang. As another 'bot and Grimm fell to his blows, the ground shuddered enough to nearly knock him off his feet. "Now what the hell's going on?"

* * *

Elsewhere in Vale, Glynda and Qrow were fighting their combined enemies when the city shook. While Qrow planted his blade to keep his footing, Glynda was able to use her Semblance to do the same. However, her eyes widened as she realized what it was. "No."

* * *

" _Fado!_ "

Aela's lupine head whipped around toward her daughter, who then tossed the Huntress her bow and a quiver of arrows. She caught the weapons and willed away the beast, and then drew and loosed an arrow at one of Atlas' automatons, all in one smooth movement. "Thanks. I almost felt naked without these."

Wearing her full armor and holding Volendrung over her shoulder, Ma'isha rolled her eyes. "You are almost as bad as Ruby."

Leveling a flat stare at the Khajiit, Aela returned, "No. I do not call Auriel's Bow 'My Sweetheart.'"

Before either of them could trade another set of barbs, the ground jolted beneath their feet. Barely able to keep their balance, Ma'isha looked toward her mother. "Mother, what was that?"

"I don't know whether to wish I knew or be thankful that I don't." Then the sound of cracking stone reached her sensitive ears and drew her attention to the largest mountain in the area.

A moment later, the top half of the mountain exploded, revealing a monstrous creature with wide, red leathery wings and a white head attached to an otherwise midnight-black body. Both mother and daughter had seen enough similar beasts to recognize that the Grimm was a dragon, one that was far larger than any in Tamriel. " _Fado_?"

Much as they tried to hide it, Aela knew that they both were terrified of this new monster; despite her best efforts, Ma'isha's voice had trembled on that one word. "I think… this is one that only your father can take down."

* * *

Lejule saw the dragon emerge, and his lips split into a predatory grin. "Excellent."

Cardin turned from where he had been watching the mountain. "'Excellent?' How is this 'excellent?'"

The cat took a deep breath, hearing his dragon soul chanting for the first time in ages. "This will be the first true test of my full abilities since I came here. Keep moving the innocents to safety. I will return." He walked toward the oncoming dragon and Shouted. " **MUL QAH DIIV!** " As his Aura flared and its ethereal wings unfurled, he leaped into the air.

* * *

Two whirlwinds of destruction tore through rank after rank of Atlesian Knights and White Fang grunts, Blake with her blades striking down four enemies every second and Ebon's fiery breath incinerating entire swaths at a time.

The next few echelons of enemies were sent flying by whirling pulses of energy. The robots weren't given the chance to land before a massive flock of miniature white nevermores tore them apart. The White Fang collapsed in unconscious heaps. With the field clear, the two Faunus took a moment to catch their breaths and see who their helpers had been… and their eyes widened when they saw who they were.

"Blake Belladonna, what did we tell you about coming to us when something was wrong?" Weiss Schnee stepped forward, sheathing Myrtenaster as she did so.

"I would have… were this trip my choice."

Winter tilted her head, her saber still out and ready. "How do you mean?"

Typhon stepped forward. "Mr. Daytha dragged us out of bed in the middle of the night to hunt for the one who did all… this." He spread his arms to indicate the crap-show that was going on around them.

Before anything more could be said, the sound of cannon fire and the screams of people pulled the attention of the four to the Beacon courtyard's South entrance, where a _Paladin_ was decimating a squad of Atlesian soldiers.

They began to move to assist when the whine of a _Bullhead_ 's damaged engines resounded from the North entrance. As they watched, a beowolf Alpha dropped from the damaged aircraft and landed amidst a group of civilians.

Weiss and Blake shared a glance. "Be safe."

The group split up, the sisters advancing toward the Atlesians and the Faunus pursuing the beowolf. The Grimm rounded the corner of the school cafeteria and disappeared from their sight for an instant. When they arrived, it leapt up to the entablature and climbed the rest of the way up to the roof. However, the pair couldn't pursue it because of what was happening inside the cafeteria. Blake saw it first, as a man groaned in pain. "No."

Even a deaf man could hear the tremble in her voice. And it was easy to see why. An unfortunately familiar Faunus withdrew his blade and flung away the corpse of the Atlesian soldier he had stabbed.

"Adam?"

His smirk chilled Ebon to the bone. "Hello, my darling. And you as well, traitor."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Beware; character death will be coming, soon. Also, the duel I've been waiting to write ever since I started this story.**

 **EDIT: With the newest RWBY Chapter's revelation of Jaune's true Semblance, I stripped that part out of this chapter.**


End file.
